Meridian

At 140 in B minor this is trance with its jaw set. The kick is dry and forward, the arpeggios arrive clipped rather than soaring, and the whole thing holds full energy without ever sounding pleased about it. The odd part is the mood: the pads read happy and sad at once, small major lifts floating over a bassline that keeps sliding back into melancholy.

Danceability is near the ceiling, so it moves — but it moves like something being worked out rather than celebrated. In a set it's a mid-point turn, after the looser records and before you commit to the closing stretch. The relaxed tag is the strange one, and yet there's a stillness in the breakdown that earns it. Aggressive and gentle in the same breath; that's the bit I keep returning to.