Fin

iTunes Review

Balearic beat-based house music evolved in the mid-'80s before becoming the staple of beach raves in Ibiza and European dance clubs during the early '90s. With his debut album, Fin, Barcelona's John Talabot builds on these bygone foundations. While there are colorful hints of nostalgia throughout, Talabot never really backpedals. More swampy than tropical, “Depak Ine” opens Fin with a murky ambience of croaking frogs and marshland crickets chirping, as synth tones inspired by Andy Fletcher and pulsing beats slowly seep into the mix. This flourishes into a gothic disco with a choir of haunting vocal samples. Madrid’s Pionel cameos as coproducer in the following “Destiny.” Similarly eerie tones are contrasted by Caribbean-tinged instruments and melancholy singing that would sound right at home on a Cabaret Voltaire recording. Talabot’s penchant for sonic pointillism surfaces in “When the Past Was Present,” a more unapologetically sentimental glimpse at a time when jabbing synths and handclaps flourished on the floor.