Various – From Chicago Turin Amsterdam & Dublin With Love review

Although Chicago features in the release’s title, it’s fair to say that each producer delivers an individualistic take on US house music for London label Uzuri. At the deeper end of the spectrum sit Dublin’s Slowburn and Chicago Skyway, aka Sean Hernandez. Hernandez has a string of EPs to his credit, but amazingly this is Slowburn’s first outing, yet they sound like they’ve been knocking out records for years. The duo’s “Meteor” is a raw house jam that ticks a lot of boxes: heavy beats that sail close to discordance? Check. Eerie synths? Present and correct. Shaking, niggling percussion? “Meteor” has it in spades. Hernandez’s “Resolution M” also confirms that he is a producer to watch, as shimmering, Utopian synths and heavy claps is the most ethereal contribution to the EP.

Indeed, “Resolution M” provides some welcome respite: K Soul & Muteoscillator’s “Take 1” features one of the toughest kick drums in house music underpinning an evil acid jam. That its tempo is not high makes it sound all the more intense. However, the plaudit for intensity goes to Amsterdam-based duo Juju & Jordash. “Killing Raul With Acid” marks a departure for the duo, as its out of time percussion, noisy, dense drums and wildly distorted acid bleeps descend at times into a wall of noise. It sounds like the sonic interpretation of a bad LSD trip, but this is a journey that you have to experience at least once.

Richard Brophy