The Crystal Garden on Tomorrowland’s second weekend this July had Kevin de Vries and MEDUZA sharing a booth, and they opened the set with a record that was not out yet. Position one, and it was their own. Confident way to start a night. 7 DAYS landed on Tomorrowland Music a couple of weeks later.
What they built is patient. It runs on repetition, the loop turned a few degrees on every pass, and it holds off a long while before handing you anything that behaves like a hook. The tension does not resolve early. The melodic turn, when it comes, opens the room rather than punching a hole in it, and I ran the extended mix twice before I could tell you where it happens.
MEDUZA are the Italian trio who mostly make house records built for daytime radio, the Khalid collaboration in our archive among them. Kevin de Vries works the other end, where a record is allowed to withhold. Nobody split the difference. They went to his side of the room, and the surprise for me is how at home MEDUZA sound in the dark.
Save it for the late hours, once the crowd has emptied out and the phones are away. Debut collaborations usually sound like two people being careful with each other. This one sounds like the track they wanted to lead with, and they led with it.
