Henry Jacobs and Auscultate Explore Contrast and Emotion on Mars Wanna Be Free
Some two-track releases feel like a pair of sketches. Others feel like a conversation. Mars / Wanna Be Free, the new release from Henry Jacobs and Auscultate on Perspectives Digital, lands firmly in the second camp.
Scheduled for October 30, the project works because its two tracks do not chase the same mood. “Mars” looks outward. It suggests distance, motion, strange horizons, and the thrill of being pulled toward something unknown. “Wanna Be Free” turns inward. It brings warmth, voice, and a more personal emotional frame, helped by a standout vocal performance from Los Angeles singer, songwriter, and composer Summer Lima.
That contrast gives the release its shape. One track aims for a peak-time charge with a sudden drop into weightlessness. The other rides a heavy, rolling bassline while giving its vocal space to breathe. Together, they show how Henry Jacobs and Auscultate can balance feeling and precision without flattening either side.
The release begins with distance and drive
“Mars” is the first signal. Named after the red planet, it opens with a relentless pulse and a bright, propulsive energy that feels built for a crowded room at full pressure. The track does not ease its way in. It locks into motion quickly, using rhythm as its anchor and keeping the body engaged from the start.
That matters because the idea of Mars carries a built-in tension. The planet is familiar enough to be named, mapped, and imagined, yet it remains distant and unreachable in a human, physical sense. The track uses that same tension. It feels direct and functional, but also strange around the edges. There is drive, but also space.
The pulse sits at the center. It gives the track its sense of purpose, and it also ties into the broader character of the collaboration. This is music that cares about the body. Not in a loose, decorative way, but through rhythm, pressure, and release. The low end does not simply support the track. It becomes part of the track’s nervous system.
The best peak-time techno often works through this kind of physical certainty. It does not need to explain itself. It builds trust through repetition, then shifts the room by changing one key element at the right moment. “Mars” follows that logic, but its most memorable move is not a bigger drop or a busier section. It is the moment when almost everything disappears.
Midway through, the power cuts out completely. The low end vanishes. The track hangs in near-silence, suspended and exposed. For a moment, the body loses the thing it has been following.
That silence is not empty. It feels like distance. The image that comes to mind is not a breakdown in the usual club sense, but a transmission drifting back from deep space. Something is still alive in the track, but it feels far away, blurred by time and space. The near-silence makes the return hit harder because it reminds the listener how much weight the rhythm has been carrying.
When the heartbeat comes back, the final surge feels earned. The track regains its mass. What had been weightless becomes physical again. That transition is the key to “Mars,” and it gives the track a story without needing a vocal or a literal narrative.
The silence in Mars is part of the force
A full breakdown can be a risky choice in a driving track. If it feels too long, the energy drains. If it feels too obvious, it becomes formula. “Mars” manages the moment by making the absence feel tied to the concept of the track. The silence does not act like a pause between sections. It becomes the point of contrast that makes the pulse feel alive.
That is where the release’s interest in internal rhythm becomes clear. The brief disappearance of the low end works almost like holding a breath. The body notices what has gone missing. Then, when the track returns, the response feels instinctive.
This is techno felt in the chest as much as heard through speakers. The rhythm creates pressure, the breakdown removes it, and the final section restores it with greater force. The arrangement depends on that physical exchange.
There is also a nice balance between brightness and control. “Mars” has a propulsive shine, but it does not feel loose or overstated. Auscultate’s presence comes through in the track’s disciplined pulse and clean sense of movement. Henry Jacobs’ melodic instinct gives the record its glow, keeping the track from becoming purely mechanical.
The result is a track that can function in a set while still carrying a clear identity. It has the tools of peak-time electronic music, yet it also has a memorable structural idea. In a short release, that kind of identity matters. A two-track project has no room for filler, and “Mars” makes its case quickly.
Wanna Be Free brings the human voice forward
If “Mars” looks outward, “Wanna Be Free” moves closer to the skin. The second track goes deeper and warmer, riding a heavy, rolling bassline that never really lets go. Its motion is less about launch and more about grip. It settles into a groove and stays there with confidence.
The presence of Summer Lima changes the emotional temperature right away. As a Los Angeles singer, songwriter, and composer with a background in jazz, she brings a different kind of phrasing into the project’s electronic framework. Her voice does not sit on top as a simple hook. It opens another layer of storytelling.
That matters because “Wanna Be Free” is built around a phrase that is direct and deeply human. Freedom can mean many things in a dance track. It can suggest release on the floor, escape from pressure, emotional clarity, or the simple need to move without being held down. The track does not have to define the phrase too tightly. Summer Lima’s vocal gives it enough feeling to carry those possibilities at once.
The arrangement makes room for her. The track pulls back twice to let the voice shine through, and those moments keep the vocal from being swallowed by the groove. When the bass and rhythm return, the contrast gives the track more weight. The human element and the machine element do not compete. They answer each other.
“Wanna Be Free” succeeds because it does not abandon the release’s pulse-driven core. The bassline remains heavy. The groove keeps moving. The warmth comes through tone, space, and voice rather than a full shift into softness. That restraint helps the track sit beside “Mars” without feeling like it belongs to a different project.
There is also a clear sense of patience. The track does not rush to prove its emotional range. It lets the rolling bassline do its work, then opens enough space for the vocal to change the room. When the groove locks back in for good, it feels less like a reset and more like a commitment.
Henry Jacobs and Auscultate find strength in contrast
The most compelling part of Henry Jacobs and Auscultate Explore Contrast and Emotion on Mars Wanna Be Free is how clearly the two tracks frame the partnership. Henry Jacobs brings a soulful, melodic instinct. Auscultate brings clinical, pulse-driven precision. Those qualities could pull against each other, but here they create balance.
That balance is easiest to hear when comparing the emotional roles of the two tracks.
“Mars” moves through distance, pressure, and a sudden loss of gravity.
“Mars” uses silence as a dramatic event.
“Mars” feels like exploration.
“Wanna Be Free” builds warmth through voice, bass, and emotional directness.
“Wanna Be Free” uses vocal space as its emotional release.
“Wanna Be Free” feels like longing.
The release does not need a large tracklist to feel complete. In fact, the two-track format helps the concept. There is no excess material to blur the contrast. Each track has a clear job, and each one makes the other more meaningful.
“Mars” would still work on its own as a driving track with a memorable breakdown. “Wanna Be Free” would still work as a warm, vocal-led cut with a strong groove. Placed together, they create a wider emotional range. The listener moves from the distant and exploratory to the personal and embodied.
That movement gives the title pairing more weight. “Mars” suggests the unknown. “Wanna Be Free” suggests desire. One points toward space. The other points toward the self. The release sits between those ideas, using electronic structure as a way to connect atmosphere and feeling.
This is where Perspectives Digital feels like a fitting home. Without needing to overstate the context, the release fits a strain of electronic music that values mood, careful arrangement, and club function in equal measure. It is not only about impact. It is about how that impact is shaped.
The two tracks work like complementary chapters
The strongest electronic releases often understand that atmosphere and feeling belong together. A track can be spacious without becoming distant. It can be emotional without losing its physical force. Mars / Wanna Be Free explores that middle ground in a compact way.
“Mars” tells its story through forward motion, silence, and return. Its drama comes from what happens to the pulse. When the low end vanishes, the track becomes briefly weightless. When it returns, the final surge feels larger because the listener has felt the absence.
“Wanna Be Free” tells its story through groove and voice. Summer Lima’s vocal gives the track a human center, while the bassline keeps it grounded in the body. The pullbacks allow feeling to rise to the surface, and the returning groove gives that feeling a place to land.
Together, the tracks show how contrast can make a release feel more unified, not less. They are not matching pieces. They are paired responses. One reaches outward toward unfamiliar horizons. The other reaches inward toward a familiar human need.
For Henry Jacobs and Auscultate, that pairing gives the project its identity. It captures the tension between soul and system, melody and pulse, distance and desire. It also shows how much can happen inside a short format when each track has a reason to exist.
Mars / Wanna Be Free arrives October 30 on Perspectives Digital. Its impact comes from the way it moves between scale and intimacy. “Mars” opens the door to the unknown, while “Wanna Be Free” brings the feeling back to the body. The takeaway is simple: two tracks can be enough when they feel like two chapters of the same story.
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