Elliot Berger | Graduation EP

Background

Elliot Berger is a fairly familiar name in to anyone in the EDM community, producing mostly chill Dubstep and Drum & Bass.  However, as proclaimed on his SoundCloud, this 2 track EP is a small sample of his final university project, which he decided to bundle up and release for free.  In this project he aimed to "push [his] limits as both a composer and a producer," and I believe that his intentions shine through in his production quality.

Review

Listen to "Graduation EP"

"Graduation EP" is a wonderful example of what happens when an artist takes a step back from what they're used to and experiments.  Elliot Berger is a name I usually associate with somewhat cookie-cutter chill EDM that can sometimes lack that next level of personal touch that really makes a song emotional.  "Graduation EP", however, is something I'm glad to say is genuinely fresh, and it really feels like Berger put his soul into these works.  "It's Okay to Feel Angry," the EP's title track, is an emotional soundscape.  With hardly a beat to speak of, the slow, stretched, warped piano chords (as described by Berger on his SoundCloud) are shimmering emotion waves crashing upon the human conscious.  The song is beautifully relaxing, and the vocal samples weave through the grand chords and create the mood.  This combined with the alluring chord progression and the glitched samples create not just a song, but a work of art.  "OCD" is the next track, in which Berger tried to combine poetry and a simple chord progression with interesting drum editing.  The vocal samples come from the slam poem OCD by Neil Hilborn, a haunting poem about obsessive-compulsive disorder and love.  The song is, in my opinion, a step away from the title track, as some of Elliot Berger's roots show in the more Drum & Bass style beat that "OCD" features.  However, in terms of style, it feels much more personal his previous works and it's clear that this was a labour of love.  The simple organ-like chords combined with the intricate drums and the touching poetry makes for a pleasurable listening experience.  Knowing the poem, I do wish that the music reflected the feel of the poem a little bit, which was a little bit more chilling and depressing, while the music sounds almost content and reflects none of the horrors of obsessive compulsive disorder.  Though, if you ignore the heavy subject matter, "OCD" is far from a bad track and is definitely relaxed listening.

In his description of the EP, Berger mentions that these tracks are a selected few from an overall project "An Exploration of Audio Manipulation," and if the rest of the tracks are as good as the sample that the public got, I would have loved for "Graduation EP" to have featured them all.  Both "It's Okay to Feel Angry" and "OCD" are well produced, genuine songs that show how Berger is maturing not just as a producer, but as an artist.  I can only hope that his future works reflect and elaborate upon the styles and signatures that he so perfectly explored in this EP.  7/10

Notable Remixes

"Graduation EP" was only released 14 hours ago from when this was posted.  There are no remixes yet.  Be the first!