Take 5June 26, 2020June 30, 2020

Take 5 with Athlete Whippet

by Polly Hatcher

Hailing from South London, Athlete Whippet emerged in 2016 hosting events in the Peckham and Deptford basement club scene and producing their signature hazy house inflected sounds.

Their latest 5-track EP, Your Love Is Lifting Me, came out last week. Aviram and Robin also help run the Squareglass imprint, which over the past half a decade has put out remixes and releases from the likes of Ross from Friends and Simbad. They sat down to give a spotlight on the label, picking 5 tracks they think we ought to know about.

1. Semi Precious - When It's Hard ()

This takes us back to the first days of squareglass, we were still at uni, and Guy, who we run the label with, just started creating music as Semi Precious. He sent this over when it was still work in progress and I remember how blown away we were after hearing it. Guy has a really unique way of working with samples, and reappropriating them as a platform for his direct and crafted songwriting. This song, and the whole debut Semi Precious EP, which was our first-ever release, is one of our favourite squareglass releases to this day.

2. Athlete Whippet - Complain ()

This track is essentially the birth of Athlete Whippet. We were living together at the time and were already playing in each others' solo projects but we both had hit a point where we felt we'd creatively exhausted those and wanted to move on to something new. Robin got stuck on a train in Germany on a super hot summer day in 2016. It was just standing still for hours and they had to walk around and hand out water and everything. At the end of the day he was 6 hours delayed but had come up with the first sketch of this track that laid the groundwork of what we do now.

3. Le Son - Without a Sound ()

This was the first track that we heard from Le Son, and we fell in love with it instantly. It feels like it captures the essence of Emily and Liam really well, their music is so emotive and engaging, and at the same time effortless and confident. It went off to get some mad love, even Questlove reposted it at some point! Couldn't have been more deserved.

4. MagicFX - Clarity ()

Dom's has been the latest debut on squareglass. We first met at uni quite a few years back. We’ve rarely ever seen someone who is so virtuous with synths. Everything is insanely nuanced and constantly moving. We were in the studio with him a while ago just trying some stuff out and the max thing is, he does it all outside the box. He just has everything running into a sampler and works from there, no screen no nothing. Really inspiring.

5. Athlete Whippet - Your Love is Lifting me ()

This is the title track of our new EP, sometimes we just like going for a bit of euphoria, and that’s what this track is about. Robin brought this first in as a sketch that is based around these driving strings chords, and the whole thing came together really quickly. The lyrics of course feel very relevant in this strange and unprecedented time. It does feel strange to be putting music out to the world right now, but it has been very special to see people come together and pick each other up, and we’re dedicating our EP to those acts of solidarity and compassion.

1. Semi Precious - When It's Hard ()

2. Athlete Whippet - Complain ()

3. Le Son - Without a Sound ()

4. MagicFX - Clarity ()

5. Athlete Whippet - Your Love is Lifting me ()

You may also like