***** Billy Ray De La Haye – Beverly Hills (Eudemonia edmn006 – 2020)

Billy Ray de la Haye, a studio artist with sketchy public CV, comes allegedly from Rotterdam and not from The Hague that was my initial guess, because of ‘la Haye’ of course. By sound, he could be unmistakingly located in the Dutch west coast, when disco riffs and vocoded lyrics are sweeping over the lands in the first (mini-)album.

It’s a near-perfect soundtrack for early summer, keeping all troubles at bay with compelling melodies and infectious rhythms. Acidic Hi-NRG bomb “Beverly Hills” is placed under the sun of Hollywood, seeing stars and starlets waving from their dashing convertibles. Illuminating effect of “Holographic Torus Heart” is intensified with acid passages while euphoria quotient goes through the roof in “Whizz Around” and “Spread Your Wings & Fly”, both in a good sense uplifting tunes. Easy-going sentiment is preserved in the vocoder song “Sterntäler” and greasy bass line and ornate textures are taking “Timewise” closer to acid house .

De la Haye’s album is part of Eudemonia’s ongoing shift to 1980’s infected tunes that might have started with Low Tape’s B-side. For the next, we get on the label “Fantazia”, PRZ’s synth and acid craze in Alden Tyrell style, with the record sleeve sporting a spectacular design, as always from Eudemonia.

Buy vinyl / digital from Bandcamp
Buy vinyl from Juno (UK)
Buy vinyl from Forced Exposure (US)

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