Mia Koden has released her new four-track EP Bittersweet as an unannounced drop that lands as the producer’s first material since last year’s Keep It Steppin’. The project slots neatly into her growing body of work, showing a producer who treats every release as an opportunity to test how far she can stretch her own palette without losing the thread that runs through it all. Where Keep It Steppin’ established certain rhythmic priorities, Bittersweet feels like the next logical move: tighter, more deliberate, and still unmistakably hers.

The EP moves through several distinct modes that Mia Koden pulls from her own production history. It opens with the moody minimalist grooves of the title track ‘Bittersweet’, then shifts into the roots-inspired dubstep of ‘Endgame (Blame)’ before settling into the techy atmospherics of ‘Send Off’. Each cut keeps the low end prominent while making room for the finer details that keep the arrangements from feeling monolithic, letting heavy bass sit comfortably alongside smoother, more considered textures.

Drawing from roots reggae, the EP takes at least some of its cues from The Visionaires’ ‘African Princess’ and their sole LP To Have A Home, both pulled from a Jahlovemusik soundsystem session that Mia Koden sampled. 

Stream Bittersweet: