Lawrence
Poppies
smallville
Back in 2008, Resident Advisor ran a feature on Dial co-founder Peter Kersten, known more widely under his Lawrence alias. The piece opened by observing that his music had “barely changed in the decade since he started making it,” but throughout that time, its quality had remained impeccable. Fast forward almost two decades and the same sentiment rings true. Kersten is nothing if not constant as he continues to craft house so deep and intricate that it threatens to disappear. That reliability might be mistaken by some as a sign of waning quality, but Poppies, the latest of several EPs he’s done for smallville over the years, offers deep house minimalism at its Platonic best.
Opening number “Angels” is, as the name might suggest, an ethereal groover with a gently undulating piano melody subtly run through filters over a skeletal drum beat. Kersten works with nearly identical percussion and a similar melody on “Ray,” but adds some slightly sci-fi synth work that pops in and out over the song’s 8-minute run time. The two tracks on flip are a little bit more Chicago with softer pads and swung drums, but all four tunes are case studies in the art of unhurried DJ tools. As the saying goes, “If it ain’t broke, why fix it?”
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