Dechard is a producer, DJ and sound designer born and raised in Italy with Belgian origins. He started out in music at age 16 and evolved his experiences playing venues as a DJ before building his own studio. After studying sound engineering at Essex University, he released an Alex Vargas remix and in 2013 released his first EP Amazing, followed up by Three Gems in 2014.

This EP Balloons by Dechard consists of six tracks in a continuous mix that lasts seven and a half minutes. It’s a good representation of his musical styles which incorporate EDM, electro house and progressive house. It starts with We’re Not Alone which opens with gated, pulsing synths before a solid kick and handclap form a strong beat. This gradually becomes more intricate as extra layers are added, with a high synth melody over the chords. Essentially, its mid paced house and a fine opener.

This segues nicely into the title track Balloons which creates tension with a gradually rising quarter note bassline, then builds to a huge rise and drop as you expect from EDM. A quite complicated groove develops before another drop and we are into third track July. This is more of a harder edged track that is short but potent as are the next two tracks Star 2.0 and One Night In Sweden which are essentially Big Beat and guaranteed to get the crowd going crazy.

After these three brief tracks the EP finishes with the electro house of I Got A Ring which is similar in pace to the first track and has a complex rhythmic synth sound that fills out the texture. It then strips back to its raw elements for the last section and brings the EP to a nice close.

Overall, this is a very well written and produced EP that shows Dechard at the top of his game as a producer. He understands all the elements needed to make EDM go down a storm with a crowd and this EP certainly would. I look forward to his debut single in 2016.