Alex Banks, Forwards

Yes, the title track is fine, and the edit is there as a radio courtesy, and 'Cable 23' sort of passes. But track two, 'Elevate', is the one that sticks.

The rest of the EP works from convention: the title cut's rolling groove, the edit's brevity. They're serviceable. 'Elevate' does something else.

The key is in the low end. The bassline doesn't just follow the kick or sit in a key that happens to fit, it arrives exactly on the chord change, which shifts the whole weight of the track. Most tracks of this kind place the bass under the beat, which is safe, but 'Elevate' lets the chord change pull the bass with it. That means the drop isn't a simple tension-release. The low end is actually in the key, so the release is a resolution of pitch, not just rhythm.

That detail matters. If the bass had come in a 16th earlier or later, you'd feel the drop as a percussive event instead of a harmonic one. The way it's written, the bass is doing two jobs at once: giving you the groove and resolving the chord. That's the trick.

There's a school of thought that track two is where the real thinking happens, and that's exactly what's going on here. The other tracks are good at what they do. 'Elevate' just happens to be the one that's doing something worth listening to more than once.