From Resident Advisor:
To hear what’s weird about Aim, the Berlin-based label run by Malk «Tristen» Pechtold, you usually have to listen very carefully. Christopher Rau, however, has been wearing his peculiarities on his sleeve of late. So while the In the Water EP, his second 12-inch for the label, doesn’t exactly flip Aim’s deep house script (as outlined by Moomin, Oskar Offerman and the like), it certainly channels their pleasantly insistent grooves through a filter of slight derangement. Rau’s latest is unquestionably deep house, but it’s about as disorientating as deep house gets.
That’s not to say it won’t get you dancing. Opener «Fuck the Projection» keeps its warmth at a distance, with the usual floating pads and samples hovering—almost inaudibly at times—above a propulsive rhythm section until the track’s final moments. Drums drive «O’Hare» as well, though a more spindly melody manages to sneak through their clout. The frenetic pace of the first two cuts slows to a slink on «In the Water.» The track’s second half, where a jazzy piano loop brightens things up, is an unexpected and welcome change of pace. «Love Is What I Really Want,» featuring cosmic synths jamming over another wide-bodied kick, is a bit looser than the rest of the EP but just as impressively peculiar.
