by Isabel Thomson-Officer

Many of you will know Barcelona duo Pulshar who have put out music on Loco Dice’s Desolat. Poison Magic is the latest project by one half of Pulshar, the talented producer and vocalist Sergio Vidal aka Vidall. Having recently migrated to Puerto Rico, his latest release is out now on L’enfant Terrible Record and is four tracks of pure melodic deep house bliss. Featuring his own vocals throughout the EP, if this release is anything to judge him by we are definitely fans of this solo project and are very excited to see where he takes it next.

Opening with the title track “Poison Magic” which sits at 120 BPM, the track is bouncy and melodic, opening with a strong beat and a single long note played at the end of each two bars. The bassline melody enters alongside the snare kick which is soon joined by ethereal and floating melodies that waft in and out. A woman’s voice softly speaking French comes through in the second half of the track creating a well-balanced deep house track with lyrics to complement the overarching melody. All in all it’s a laidback opener to this stellar four track EP.

Following on from “Poison Magic” is “How Do You See Me Now” which picks up the pace opening with a driving kick snare creating the illusion of a banging warehouse techno track. When the two note synth melody enters the intensity of the track drops and it quickly settles into its deep house roots. The melody expands as a Moog keyboard joins which is soon followed by Vidall singing “how do you see me now?” The lyrics repeat over and over with echo effects added in here and there to the words ‘how’ and ‘now’ and the line occasionally changing to ‘how will you see me now?’. As the vocals drop out, the kick carries the track out to the end just as it did at the start rounding it out in perfect symmetry.

The EP continues on with the third and probably our favorite track on the release. “The Good Old Days” once again drops the tempo back opening with a driving bass beat and a loud clap on the second beat. The major melody slowly fades in sounding like the strumming of a guitar but imitated with synths. The melody rises in volume until Vidall’s lyrics soar in with “I just want to feel your kiss” followed by “I’m still missing you”. The lyrics continue to loop dropping in volume and rising each time. The various melody and lyrics work in perfect tandem with each other creating a hypnotic and beautiful dancefloor number that invokes a ton of emotion!

The last and longest track on the release, “Someday...Someday” takes the EP down a notch creating an ethereal dreamlike soundscape. It opens with long synth notes playing a minor chord progression, with a high note synth over the top. It’s nearly a minute before the beat enters and soon the synths join sounding like bells of various sizes chiming all at the same time. At two minutes in the kick starts and the lower note synth chords take center focus.  Vidall’s voice enters echoing with strange sounds creating a trippy melody accompanied by various quirky percussion and synths. It’s a beautiful and unique track that showcases Vidall’s versatility as a producer and vocalist and a wonderful closer to his first solo EP