Formerly performing under the Orlando Volcano moniker, this Brooklyn-based DJ/producer’s sound has been appreciated for its balance of influences from Jamaica, America and the UK. His 2016 Complete Concrete EP flaunted familiar dancehall daringness while consciously exploring a sensitive palette of synth sounds. It’s an aesthetic not too dissimilar to that of Manchester’s Swing Ting label. This is music that aims to unite disparate dance communities rather than haphazardously appropriate their tropes.

And yet, as demonstrated in this EP – released via Mr Mitch’s revered Gobstopper imprint – Orlando’s vision is yet to be perfected. Overshadowed by the four-tracker’s centrepiece song, the temperate dancehall track Cyaa Dun featuring rising Jamaican vocalist Nemesis, The Tide That Moves Me is an intriguing but sobering misstep from a promising producer. The self-titled opener scintillates with gently winking keys and saccharine melodies that are simply too plain, too mild, too intentionally naive to incite a real emotional reaction. Sensory Deprivation Tank ascends with these inverted spurts of percussion and tumbles with awkwardly placed synthlines. Orlando as an artist remains a breath of fresh air. Unfortunately The Tide That Moves Me could prove to be his splutter in the wrong creative direction

Tom Watson