London UK-based Mike Green, best known as Fort Romeau received international attention for the deep groove-based house music sound of his 2012 full-length debut, Kingdoms. Naturally, in the years that followed, Greene’s sound evolved as he released three 12 inches, an EP and played a number of DJ sets across Europe – DJ sets which interestingly enough, heavily influenced the writing process and the song of his recently released sophomore effort, Insides. As Green explains in the press notes, “Playing in those clubs definitely had an affect on how I approach composition and pacing. I want to allow things to breathe and develop gradually over longer track lengths, rather than cram everything into four or five minutes.” 

And as you’ll hear on the album’s latest single “Not A Word” with New Jackson, the track reveals an almost painterly approach – the track’s undulating synths slowly build up in intensity before hot flashes of cymbal and drums enter before being paired with vocals fed through layers upon layers of vocoder. By the bridge a cascading layer of synths are added to give the song a subtle cosmic glow. Much like Kraftwerk’s “Trans Europe Express” and “Autobahn” and The Chemical Brothers’ “Star Guitar,” “Not A Word” possess a sense of propulsive momentum – and evokes the sensation of being in a moving vehicle.

The official video is comprised of splotches flying across the screen in time with the music – but they manage to be the sort of splotches that are reminiscent of screen tests, specifically done to make sure that the projector was in focus and that the sound was properly set up. It’s actually kind of trippy.