Adam Sellouk, The Antidote

Adam Sellouk lands on Afterlife with ‘The Antidote’, a three-track study in tension, release and everything in between.

‘Chronic’ gets its hands dirty early, a thick, rolling groove with a vocal loop that digs in and doesn’t let go. It’s built for the main room, but it’s not in a hurry. ‘Confusion’ is the quiet standout, a four-bar stumble in the middle that finds its way back to the beat before you’ve even worked out what’s wrong. It’s the kind of detail you miss the first time and can’t unhear after. ‘Poison’ closes the record with a deeper, more patient cut, all smeared pads and a low-end that sits just under the skin.

It’s a solid debut, but the real story is the context. Adam Sellouk arrives on one of the biggest labels in the genre with just 891 Deezer fans to his name. That’s not a footnote, that’s the whole point. The label is carrying the name here, not the other way round, and that’s a rare thing in 2024. It means the music did the talking.

The record still works late, past the point where people are dancing hard. It’s background enough that conversations can carry on over it, but it’s still doing something if you actually listen. That’s a hard line to walk, and Sellouk walks it well.