PAMPA004 - Holy Love

For the fourth release on DJ Koze and Marcus Fink’s Pampa imprint, hyperactive hotshot house hunk Axel Boman steps up and delivers a stunning debut EP for the label. Since many years an important force on the small but friendly Swedish club scene, and one third of the Studio Barnhus crew together with Kornél Kovács and Petter, Axel is as experienced a producer as his ideas are fresh. This tattooed Swede often talks about creating “worlds” rather than “tracks”, and on his "Holy Love" EP we are transported to three very different places indeed.

The title track, a collaboration with vocalist J Jonason, invites you to take part in a lazy afternoon cocktail party onboard an old sailing boat in Gothenburg’s archipelago. Ten City are mixing up the White Russians and Giorgio Moroder’s estranged Swedish grandson is peeling the shrimp. You fall asleep on the patio and wake up in a sweaty basement later that night.

Through the shabby speakers of one of those small but friendly Stockholm night clubs, you hear “Purple Drank”, a sleazy, sexy number that draws influences from Houston style screw music, classic deep house and hypnotic techno. The irresistible vocal hook – “I woke up with your name on my lips” has already echoed across dance floors from Tokyo to Amsterdam. Bouncy yet unsettling, this track is probably the most obvious DJ’s favorite on the EP.

Morning comes yet again, and for the after party we head to Axel’s private rooftop terrace in sunny Gröndal. The laptop speakers are banging out the most loved up piano loop you ever heard. “Not So Much” is as simple and naïve as Axel Boman’s haircut, a perfect ending to a perfect night and a perfect little record from this imperfect genius of a dance music producer.