There’s a new release on Belgian label Sdban Ultra that got our full attention, from instrumental outfit ECHT!. Made up of Martin Méreau, Dorian Dumont, Florent Jeunieaux and Federico Pecoraro, ECHT! are named after the word in brusseleir, a Brussels dialect, that means ‘vrai de vrai’, and translates as ‘true’ or ‘real’. The four-piece picked the name as they perform with conventional musical instruments and also none of them hails from Brussels. Reportedly drawing influences from genres like Electro, Hip-Hop, Psychedelic Groove, Footwork, Trap, Funk and Futuristic Jazz, ECHT! are set to release their debut EP, DOUF, next week. The EP was recorded over the course of three days in an empty space in Colfontaine, Hainaut, and as the press release describes, it features “8 tracks consumed as one continuous 16-minute mix of swirling beats and edgy offbeat rhythms”.

DOUF arrives on November 29th but we can already hear repeatedly the insanely good debut single ‘R2D2’. ECHT! had this to day about it:

“R2-D2 is the fruit of a night jam. We found that kind of sampled piano riff combined with space-full yet heavy hip-hop groove. We wanted to add some of our weirdest, most futuristic sounds (the name ‘R2-D2’ refers to one of those) and a robotic gimmick emerged. Then we alternated this part with a frenetic, condensed flow growing more and more to finally submerge you. This tune reflects our approach: we try to integrate the inhuman heritage of electronic music and “re-humanize” it in an instrumental performance”.

Listen to ‘R2D2’ below.