★★★☆☆
As a can of worms looks for a tin opener, it’s 50/50 as to whether you’d deem Luminosity as ‘intelligent’ or ‘deeper’ EDM. “Elements of Life” is most indicative of muting the pyrotechnics and aiming to be more meaningful. An additional alignment to tech-house with a laboratory feed has the power and the blinkers to hit the dancefloor pretty hard, stitched together with diligent, driving digital precision. Despite being regularly mounted on rock solid beds of bass – make sure the low ends are well up actually, otherwise the likes of “Perception” will pass by and make you think that Steijger’s studio isn’t fully plugged in — a lack of excitement is spun positively as a surplus of proficiency, picturing gyroscopes rotating economically.
The Dutchman making spindly rhythms happen with full-bottomed sound will serve you well when in the middle of a marathon dancefloor session looking for something to run more club circuits to. Kind of inevitably there’s a momentary drop down in tempo, with “Interlude” providing peril as it pushes bass across a rope bridge, the cue for Steijger to start thrusting more darkly with the steely spirals of “Unconscious” and to finish the album arousing suspicions. If you want something to get you moving without pretension or hoopla and can pass Steijger’s sound as scientific, the glow of Luminosity won’t have you shielding your eyes or ears, even if its brilliance is only by name.
File under: Pig & Dan, Tom Novy, Sander Young