Premiere: Hong Kong based RFX serves up essential Afro-inspired edit EP

The force behind Fauve Radio digs deep and delivers four tastefully crafted and eminently floor-friendly reworks.

RFX, also known as Romain FX, is a true citizen of the universe. Born in France, raised in USA, Taiwan, and now residing in Hong Kong, his international upbringing has endowed him with an all-encompassing approach to collecting music and a keen ear for the exotic. A founder of Fauve Radio, Roofest, and Roam parties, he’s a leading light and genuine innovator on the HK scene. For this outing on the Fantastic Voyage label, he delivers some superb Afro-inspired edits.

A sincere love and respect of a variety of music from the vastness of Africa was the motivation for Romain putting together this record, and he chose work from distant corners of the continent to carefully reconstruct. On the A-side, he opens with an extended version of piano-laden party starter ‘Indaba Kabani’, which will likely get plenty of attention due to its dance-floor immediacy. Next up is the brilliant, high-energy, slap-bass fire of ‘Gambian Neptune’ - which sounds to us like Frankie Goes To Hollywood lost in the tropical heat of the Banjul night.

Our picks from the very strong release are on the flip-side. ‘Nigerian Charon’ unfolds mysteriously over a solid rhythm track, with its chant vocal, synth arpeggios and tripped-out breakdowns driving it deep into dance-floor delight.

‘Sudanese Xena’ is just a touch more introspective, lush synth layers and immersive vocal textures underpin space-age top-lines, while picked guitars and reverb-heavy percussion drive the groove over deep bass.

The whole 12 is really well put together and has rightfully attracted some excellent support from the likes of Justin Van Der Volgen, Jacques Renault, Moon Boots, Felix Dickinson, Jon Talabot and many others. This EP will be a vinyl only release, as part one of the Fantastic Wax series. You can check the full release here and set yourself up an e-mail alert so you don’t miss out.