Nikitch and Kuna Maze are both French producers who have been working in hip hop and electronic music for a little while now. They both have released EPs with French label Cascade Records over the past two years, with Kuna Maze actually appearing as a guest artist one Nikitch’s last release. After being in each other’s orbits for a little while, we finally get this collaboration out of them, and EP named Cake.

One of the great things about Cake is that you can’t immediately tell where one artist starts and the other stops. Both producers have carved a niche out for themselves by working across genres and blending them in their own unique ways, taking their backgrounds in classical and jazz and translating them into downtempo, skweee, house, R&B, and hip hop. While the music is a little bit hard to pin down, it’s immediately accessible. You’ll be nodding your head along to some absolutely funky grooves as you move from one song to the next, but your ears will be perking up not just as each song starts, but as each song moves into the next movement, going in unexpected directions. Both Kuna Maze and Nikitch have an incredibly strong understanding on how to build a song and structure it in such a way that it will introduce some unexpected elements and pivot and go in interesting directions, all while remaining easy to follow and enjoy. It’s no easy feat, and the way that these two manage to make this EP sound like such a complete and fulfilling listening experience is nothing to sneeze at. It’s something that sounds amazing both on headphones and coming through your stereo system, with these brilliant heady compositions that are also fun to move your feet to.

I don’t know what Nikitch and Kuna Maze’s plans are in the future, but I hope more collaborations are forthcoming. They have an amazing chemistry together, one that’s not always easy to find when it comes to producers, and they’ve managed to create some really distinct instrumental music with Cake. It’s something that you can continuously listen to and catch something new each time.