While it’s common for electronic music producers to take on pseudonyms, Los Angeles’ Diego Herrera goes the extra mile by adopting a different gender. As Suzanne Kraft, he specializes in creating mellow instrumentals that hark back to the oldfangled analog synthesizers and rudimentary drum machines of the early '80s. The title track to the 2012 Horoscope EP could easily be mistaken for a musical interlude from the first season of Miami Vice. Its neon tones, simple samples, and crisp beats evoke images of plastic palm trees, pink flamingos, and linen suit jackets with the sleeves rolled up to stay cool in balmy weather. The synthetic rimshots pumped through reverb in the following “No Worries” are another nice touch. And those cartoonishly Eastern-flavored keyboard tones would do well to score a scene in which some stylish detectives take a detour through Chinatown to interrogate a local shopkeeper and see if he happens to know anything about smuggling drugs inside jade sculptures. “Ritmo” shows more liveliness, with percolating rhythms that one-up those on Hot Butter’s 1972 hit “Popcorn.”
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