The Runners – Workin My Nerves review

Artist: The Runners
Title: Workin’ My Nerves
Label: Dirt Crew Germany
Genre: Deep House
Format: Digital
Buy From: Juno Download

After putting out a debut 12″ on German label Dirt Crew at the end of last year, the duo of Lukas and Kevin Cook team up once more for the Workin’ My Nerves EP. “London Thing” (sadly not a cover of Scott Garcia’s garage classic “It’s A London Thing”) is a deep house nugget, with some classic filtering and a nice change into some skewed techy chords. It’s smart stuff, and it’s used brilliantly on Soul Minority’s mix, where we’re taken even deeper as the filtered vocals are laid out for longer and some seriously bassy Rhodes is added.

Title track Workin’ My Nerves has a similarly deep feel, with a woozy loop running underneath the track making it sound as though part of the song has been buried at sea. Some nicely chopped female vocals and bright fingersnaps hold the song together brilliantly and keep it fresh and funky. Venetian Girl has a slower, darker and more Tech’d out vibe that ends the EP nicely and shows that this duo have a pleasingly wide range of skills to draw on. We won’t be telling The Runners to jog on anytime soon.

Review: Oliver Keens