Sneaky Records are proud to present a stunning debut from Ian Blevins. The British producer has been conjuring up a melancholic style that draws upon classic disco, soul, and house as much as much driving acid and techno for the best part of a decade. Those who've followed his rock solid run of releases on Futureboogie, Colour Series, Audio Parallax and more, will find '909 Balloons' a beguiling addition to the catalogue. The EP is also a canny portrait of Blevins' international DJ schedule, with co-productions and remixes from some talented friends bolstering the strength of the producer's own solo cuts.

Blevins'sensuous, yet bruising sound is nowhere more in evidence than on 909 Balloons' title track, where ripplingkicks, toms and acid bass underpin languorous house piano chords and urgentpants of vocal sampling. Likewise, Blevins' collaborative productions with fellow Brit, Phil Moody, under the Al Gobi alias generate an unusual momentum by pitting mid-tempo percussion muscle and breezy textural work against oneanother. On 'Libanese', porous synths render deep acid squelches strangely weightless, and 'I Need' wrenches a similar cloudy elegance from clipped vocal samples.

The strength of the EPs two remixes are a testament to the quality of Blevins' original material. A take on '909 Balloons' by the prolific Ashworth is a Four Tet-esque twinkling, propulsive club tool, and Bird of Paradise's 'Libanese' remix emphasises the alien extravagance of the original with unnerving washes of ambient noise, and far-out drum machine licks.