Sci-Fi Wonders – KYXORA (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

To label “Sci-Fi Wonders,” the new one from KYXORA, as merely EDM or dance music would be to miss the very thing that the track actually does so well. Sure, beat and groove, infectiousness and immediacy, the things that make dance music so compelling in the first place, are all front and centre, but dig a little deeper, and you find what truly makes the song stand out.

Look past the arrays of beats and gratuitous grooves, and you find some interesting textures, blends of sonics, liquid electronica, and bubbling beauty that seem to draw a line between early synth-pop adventure and a sort of timeless, neo-classical grace, at least the neo-classical filtered through the digital world.

This instrumental piece could be the soundtrack to the start of the winding-down part of the clubland schedule, a gentle compromise between the dancefloor big hitters and that slow evolution into the chill-out sound of the early hours. But more than that, there is something filmic, something cinematic about it, something that looks both back at the first steps of EDM and to where things might go next. That forward-thinking vision is crucial in a world where many are happy merely to copy what has gone before, to look back rather than ahead.

Grace and groove are working in perfect harmony! But also a nod to the past as KYXORA strides out to embrace the potential of what might happen next. How cool is that? (Very cool, that’s how!)