WORDS Tara Joshi

That this is Erol Alkan’s first ever solo record seems impossible. Years of his exquisite production, enticing remixes, releases from his record label Phantasy, and the stories from his notorious, now defunct London clubnight, Trash, have all made the DJ something of a household name (that is, for households with a proclivity towards left-field, neon-tinged electro).  Illuminations makes it clear that the wait for a solo EP was worth it. A Hold On Love shimmers and shudders with a wonderfully fluid, clean sound, crescendoing into beautiful waves of synths and almost-tropical beats that wash right over you. Bang is a more intense track: driven, somewhat dark, and incredibly danceable. Check Out Your Mind is a lot of fun, with spiralling sounds and that trademark strange, uplifting buzz. That those three tracks comprise the EP as a whole makes Illuminations somewhat unsatisfying, perhaps, but mainly it is a concise, moreish embodiment of Alkan’s sound.