Snowk’s “Soen” carries the cold of the place it was made. Yutaka Taknami and Fuminori Kagajo are from Japan’s snow country, and the melodic house record they built for the French label Kitsuné Musique pushes the synths to the back of the mix and the kicks to the front, in a way the genre has not asked for. The kick drum holds the dance floor, and the synth lines walk out of the room before the kick is done.
The contradiction inside “Soen” is the one the genre papers over. Melodic house asks the body to stay. “Soen” lets the body stay and the mind leave. The two producers hold a four-on-the-floor pulse long enough for the room to commit, and then the lead synth starts pulling toward the door, and the room has to choose which part of itself to follow. Built for a floor, the song still asks the floor to dance to a record with one foot already out of the room.
“Soen” ends the way the snow country ends a storm. The kick drum stops, and the city looks the same as it did an hour before. Taknami and Kagajo hand the listener a dance floor that has been cleared of footprints, and the four-on-the-floor pulse goes silent without ceremony. The producers let the listener walk home from the club with the cold still on their coat.
