Review: Branx Brings The Funk On Debut EP “Look But Don’t Touch”

–Written by Kevin Madert

When foraying into the ever widening future-funk landscape, it’s good to have two things: serious talent and serious friends. Branx (formerly DCarls) has more than enough of the former to not even need the latter, but it doesn’t hurt when everyone from Gramatik to Opiuo is singing your praises. Case in point: the producer’s debut EP under his current moniker, Look But Don’t Touch. Over five tracks he pilots the listener on a funk-fueled odyssey, often changing the tempo but never straying from the crisp basslines and shimmering synths that shape the album tonally.

“Sauce” starts things off at a slow-but-steady pace, interwoven with subtle cuts and laid-back guitar strumming. “Pellegrino Sweat” features fellow nu-funk maestros Exmag laying into the track at a more marked pace but with zero frantic intentions. “Watermelon Bubblegum” is my personal favorite and perhaps sees Branx at his most versatile – it draws you in with sultry melodies, hinting at an industrial undertone before launching into a funk-step breakdown that seems to draw on the heavies of Skrillex and KOAN Sound. The doubletime section at the end is just an added bonus. He brings it back down a few notches with the silky synths on appropriately named “Lavender Avenue.”

“Smoove Operator,” has been on rotation in my car for a few weeks, and it brings us home (minus an under-a-minute coda called “Deluxe,” featuring brass-infatuated Russ Liquid) in a perfect encapsulation of what this EP is all about – a deft melding of upbeat, hard-hitting elements and chilled out funk undertones that exist in give-and-take harmony.

Check out a full stream of Branx’s debut EP Look But Don’t Touch via his Soundcloud below.