By: Anand Harsh

For over a year now, the Champagne Drip project has been a bit of a mystery to us. The tropical, trappy, melodic and upbeat originals and remixes were flying in from all angles, but we couldn't figure out who was crafting these delicately assembled sonic masterpieces.

Now it all makes sense, because audio wizard Sam Pool was behind it the whole time. Producing and performing as SPL, Pool originally staked out his claim in the music industry on the back of heavy bass. A transitory period, which saw him release a fusion record of Balearic bass music, eventually gave way to this new project, Champagne Drip, which took a completely different tact to producing contemporary dance music.

Today, Pool releases his latest Mad Decent EP, Journey Into The Champagne Sea, which is available as a free download. Fusing trends, which is what he does best, Pool has cultivated a synth-heavy, lush sound comparable to Wave Racer. Today's featured track, "FantaSea," is much different, though. Taking a nostalgic Final Fantasy VII theme and seemingly running it through a Sega Saturn modulator, what results is this dreamy house thinker that almost ends up in the chillwave zone.

Champagne Drip advocated the use of Oblique Strategies in the production of this EP, which really comes across. In the 70's, producer extraordinaire Brian Eno released a limited edition set of index cards with obtuse phrases or suggestions (i.e. "What would your closest friend do?" or "Use an old idea") to help musicians conquer dead ends or writers block. With the wildly inventive and almost counter-intuitive nature of some of these tracks, we really get a sense for this abstract creative process we only dream of understanding.

Download the EP for free today, and dive into the Champagne Sea with us...