Sugarpill‘s Flow Goggles EP has been on my list of music to be reviewed for a few weeks now. Released on Mochipet’s Daly City Records at the end of August, Flow Goggles is evidence of this rising producer’s continual growth. Sure, I could go into superlatives about the “hottest EP of the summer” and the “latest must have tracks” but that’s not necessarily what Flow Goggles is about. This is Sugarpill flexing his musical muscles after years of practice. And it’s not all about production or brute balls to the wall bass but about the search for one’s own sound within glitch hop, a genre of music that prides itself in its ability to elude description.

One of the hardest tasks for an electronic musician is to establish a sound of his own. A sound that encapsulates a unique energy and produces almost instantaneous recognition. Flow Goggles is not that album, but it’s certainly a step in that direction. The prominent use of acapellas that were hallmark of Sugarpill’s previous releases and DJ sets play a much less prominent role. The vocal samples that are present, are so spliced and affected that they can barely be identified. And that’s a good thing. The vocals have become an instrument that Sugarpill wields rather than just a hook for the audience to get off on.

All this leaves more room for Sugarpill to display his compositional skills which are reaching maturity. His greatest strength being his ability to marry the unpredictability and complexity of IDM with the glitches and bass of the West Coast sound, without losing a catchy and heartfelt pop aesthetic. With the release of Flow Goggles, Sugarpill leaves the shallow waters behind and begins to float towards the deep end. And we can’t wait to hear more when he gets there.

Flow Goggles EP is available at Additech

And as a special gift, a free download of Sugarpill’s Verderbo (Rock and Rose) written for this year’s Burning Man.

Download: Sugarpill – Verderbo (Rock and Rose).mp3