Electronic music, as a genre, can be quite the tough scene to make an impression in, especially considering that, these days, anyone can make electronic music. Taking a whack at the electronic genre this time around is Nottingham based guitarist and producer, Kirk Spencer.

Kirk Spencer, has been breaking into the music scene in all sorts of places, most recently, at Reading Festival. At Reading Festival, he managed to swing a slot, by being put forward by an eager listener, on the BBC introducing stage. During this set, he played three of his songs, with the help of Ben Fawse and drums and Marita, delivered some very moving vocals. With his recent exposure at Reading and more recent, free gigs and phone interviews, Kirk is spreading his sound across the airwaves and slowly, building a bigger following.

Kirk is, to put it bluntly, a busy bee. He’s released a small collection of songs with Marita on his album ‘Shanghai Underground’, he’s also put out a singles release that feature the tracks ‘Open your eyes’ and ‘Far off continent’. With further plans to release a concept album and constantly remixing songs, one has to wonder where this man will stop. The answer is with ‘Enter the Void’ not soon…

The EP starts off in a slow and twinkly manner with the song ‘Raah’. It would appear to me that this song borrows on the more sample heavy music that sits in ambient territory. Bands like ‘The Futrure Sounds of London’ create a very similar sound, but one that keeps attention as it progresses on into the next song. ‘Flying through India’ is, by almost every means, a dance track that anyone can leap onto the dance-floor to and throw down a few cheap moves. With the gentle wubs pattered in this track, you almost feel like it is going to break into a massive drum and bass tune, but this is not the case; Kirk keeps it clean… Somewhat and­ then walks us through with soothing breaks, into his next song.

This track, for me, is the real stand-out. A catchy sample, a catchy beat and some raw guitar that bites your toes off, if you’re stood to close.­­­­ ‘It don’t mean a thing, if you ain’t got that swing’ will be stuck in my head for days… As this song just uses this sample with such… Grooviness? I guess that’s all that all that can be said! ‘Phantom’ is an incredibly organic sounding song, with effects that just contribute nicely to each other and create a vacuum of sound that you can’t help but get trapped in. With the uplifting chords and a strong sense of pace throughout, this track is another strong piece of work. The final track on this album is a grower, literally! The sound starts off small, but gradually grows in to this whale of a tune that will have even the soberest of people dancing and raising the roof until it winds down and ends abruptly.

As an EP ‘Into the void’ stands tall and triumphant, the only thing that really bothered me was that sometimes the songs could get repetitive, but with such great sounding tracks, the bother never really grew. Kirk makes a strong debut with this EP and, to put it simply, I eagerly await more of his work and hope he gets more listeners for his fantastic work.

Support a Nottingham artist and buy this EP on iTunes.

Our Rating
8/10