Oro Azul is a collaboration between Vancouver-based veteran DJ / producer, Michael Red, and Mexican-in-Montreal, sound-designer, Ultima Esuna. The duo’s alias translates as “Blue Gold”, and their E.P.’s called Water Seeds, so unsurprisingly all but one of the 4 tracks have an aquatic theme. Lumeria is a mythical sunken continent, once believed to lie beneath the Indian Ocean. Musically it’s represented here by a relaxed, wheezing waltz of muffled techno tones. Something that shifts to soft, syncopated snares, while bringing in layers of bucolic melody, whose timbre recalls Boards Of Canada. Atlantis, a paean to Plato’s legendary lost city, starts with stuttering sonics – which sound like seabirds squawking – and sparse, jazz-inflected keys. Pretty soon these are moving to gentle post-house percolations, playful beats and a bossy bottom-end. Deliciously deep, super cool, sophisticated, and unafraid to indulge in some abstract funk theory, no doubt Theo Parrish and Kenny Dixon Jr. are in amongst the influences, sunken treasure, at its root. Mantarraya, or “manta ray” to non-Spanish speakers, adds tropical chimes, and a percussive rattle, building a beautiful, blissed-out balafon-like jam. Swaying to a clap like slapped palms, it slowly wraps its warmth about you. Only Eros, named after the Greek god of love and sex, is the thematic outlier. Its instruments are still in muted, dubbed loops, but it boasts a far bigger tribal thump, and the machined repetition results in a ritual, drum circle, dynamic. Its b-line, a more reggae-esque skank, and echoed rimshots, transforming the track into a spaced-out chug.

Oro Azul’s Water Seeds is released this Friday, care of Mood Hut.