ALBUM REVIEW: Lost Midas 'Off The Course'

Rating:

You don’t need to second guess what Jason Trikakis’ musical background is. His debut album Off The Course – with new side project, Lost Midas – screams of a former drummers work. The emphasis is on a powerful beat dominating the majority of an extremely varied album, which manages to keep the listener guessing throughout.

Lost Midas launches into the first track with the ballsy ‘Sunset Strut’. A real LA vibe is unleashed upon the audience with a bouncing track which would only be truly at home in a car with the roof down, cruising around in the middle of summer. Think of a heavier version of Mark Morrison’s ‘Return Of The Mack’. This powerful beat continues into Head Games’, which features the silky voice of Audris. This being said, the heavy synths in this track bear more of a similarity to a slowed down ’90s acid house song, which adds to the variety.

Alongside the heavy songs, the listener is also treated to some lighter ones. This includes ‘Tick Tock Tick’ and ‘Pixy Dust’, the latter of which gets away with being downright dainty, yet somehow can afford to get away with it due to the experimental nature of the album. Elsewhere within Off The Course you can pick up several other influences, distant enough from the artists, however, to be seen as flattery rather than crude imitation. ‘Dream of Me’ is arguably a nod to Deadmau5, while ‘Westerly Terrace’ could have come from Nero’s genre defining Welcome Reality. This is often where side projects such as this come into their own; there’s no real demand for a genre so an artist can play around without fear of a severe backlash.

Electronic music (from the UK in particular) is currently undergoing a post Disclosure hangover, with every new DJ opting for a style of Soft House. Being a side project for Jason, however, means that Lost Midas has been free to produce a wide selection of tracks, each reflecting his influences, the result being a highly entertaining album.

Off The Course is out now via Tru Thoughts.