Our writers choose their top releases of the week
SINGLE OF THE WEEK
Dez Andres – Back In My Space EP (Beretta Music)
Detroit’s Beretta Music present yet more impeccable deep house moves on their latest release, this time turning to the one they call Andres to supply a distinct set of soul-infused grooves.
The label, run by Brian Kage and Ryan ‘Ryski’ Sadoras, is quickly building an intriguing catalogue after an extended hiatus, with last year marking a return to release action after almost two decades in the wilderness. While they’ve welcomed a few greats into a roster that’s largely populated by the co-founder’s own work, ‘Back In My Space’ is arguably a benchmark moment for the brand, with Andres among the most celebrated acts welcomed into the fold. Humberto ‘Andres’ Hernandez has been enjoying a deserved and extended spell in the relative limelight over the past decade, having burst out of the shadows with his phenomenally successful ‘New For You’ back in 2012.
He’d been around for a good many years before breaking through, of course, producing work for Moodymann’s Mahogani and KDJ from as far back as the late ‘90s. With a stylistically limber aesthetic that owes as much to hip hop and funk-soul heritage as four/four club rhythms, he routinely delivers seductive soundscapes that brim with organic mystique. The title track here is a case in point, with sample-heavy harmonics gliding over languid house drums and thick bass licks. Soulful, gently funky and entirely hypnotic, it’s a fine opener to an alluring EP.
Raising the energy with a jagged Latin rhythm, the sing-along vocals and atmospheric string samples of ‘Don’t Be Fooled’ provide an intoxicating contrast to the rugged kick and loosely-looped production that power the arrangement. On the flip, the rough and ready approach is leaned into further courtesy of in-house production outfit Airport Society, with gorgeously lumpy drums driving through hallucinatory sweeps and searing soul leads on their revision of ‘Back In My Space’. Finally, the evocative meanderings of ‘Back To Nature’ return to the heads-down flex Dez does so very well, with poignant harmonies and sliced vocals drifting over stoner beats and speaker-shaking bass.
PC
Calibre – Cinamin (Mystic Arts)
Calibre has made some seriously impressive moves into deep house and techno territory in recent years, and ‘Cinamin’ extends his expedition beyond the liquid drum and bass realms in which the bulk of his work is positioned. The man behind the music, Dominick Martin, has been making waves in the d’n’b community for decades, most commonly releasing via his own Signature Records imprint while frequently gracing the rosters of the scene’s most esteemed labels. His music has landed on V Recordings, Soul:R, and Creative Source among many others, and though he’s taken dalliances into UK Garage, ambient and beyond, it’s unquestionably rolling rhythms and heavy bass for which he’s best known.
His latest release arrives via the freshly launched Belfast label, Mystic Arts, and though approximately rooted in a hazy deep house aesthetic, there’s a refreshing ambiguity to the sonic textures presented. True to form, the production on both cuts is exemplary, starting with the fluid melodies of the title track. Muted chords drive the rhythm as delicate synth lines meander and entwine, sparse drums keep the tempo and powerful subs add endless depth. Evocative and ethereal, the mood is well and truly set as we ready ourselves for the b-side manoeuvres. A touch more poignant (despite the carnival spirit that its name suggests), ‘Samba’ dwells somewhere in the twilight, with brooding harmonics and melancholy sweeps evolving over crisp drums as dramatic chords cut to the very core. This is intriguing work from Calibre, an artist who appears to be revelling in sonic experimentation after 20-plus years deep in the game. On top of this, ‘Cinamin’ lays down a sturdy statement of intent from Mystic Arts, and it will be fascinating to hear what’s next to arrive from the freshly birthed label.
PC
Nick León & DJ Python – Esplit EP (Worldwide Unlimited)
It’s interesting how the touted blow up of reggaeton and Latin club music in global techno has manifested. Rather than one consolidated sound over-mined by imitators, its tended to be picked up in fragmented places by artists with imaginative ways to incorporate the rhythms and motifs into their own influences and approaches. Presenting something of an authoritative angle for that phenomenon comes this split release from Nick León and DJ Python. The former is a Florida-rooted producer who has risen to prominence linking up with Mexico’s NAAFI label and producing for Rosalía, while the latter has transcended the trappings of NYC-centric deep techno to offer an angular, zesty kind of club music for the likes of Incienso and Dekmantel.
The split record here is a no-nonsense affair which offers up two productions each, leading in with León on the A side. There’s a mechanical paranoia coursing through ‘Nerves’ which is instantly addictive, packed full of needling, modulated synth strikes and all riding the deftest of dembow beats with some eerie pad work shaping out the middle distance. ‘Love Potion’ is a deeper affair thanks to the warm tone of the bassline, capturing a sundown terrace kind of atmosphere made magic by the kink of the drums.
Python opens up the flip with ‘i’m tired’, one of his most low-down nasty beats to date, flicking hyphy synth shrieks into the mix between glassy drops and a trap-adjacent rhythm section. It’s minimal in its demeanour despite the detail etched into the groove, leaving enough space in the mix for the DJ to have some fun. ‘uwu’ is a whole other beast, favouring a weightless pad approach with scant low end and interesting formations of percussive modulation bubbling away on top. It’s angled as an oddball experiment but holds true to a rhythmic focus which could make for an artful breather in the midst of a set.
OW
Transmitting from the mysterious depths of the Swedish techno underground comes a new missive from PST. Through his prior releases as Porn Sword Tobacco Henrik Jonsson has moved through elegant electronica into a space where machine-powered rhythm mantras have held sway, at some point condensing his name down to an acronym and focusing his output in kind. It’s a subtle and reliably elegant approach that keeps rawness at the forefront of the mix without falling into pitfalls of distortion instead of ideas.
Returning to Kontra Musik, surely one of the finest of Sweden’s respected outliers in the techno domain, Jonsson offers three very different escapades wrought from his boxes. On the A side, the message is clear – submit or be destroyed. ‘Eld’ rains down piledriving arpeggios and brittle box drums over a 15-minute span, making for a consummate techno jam which piles the peaks up high and holds your interest through the troughs. It’s rasping and acidic, and charged with enough electric abandon to justify a wholesale spin in a dance reaching fever pitch.
On the flip, you might be surprised by the inclusion of something as direct as ‘Houseparty’. PST has hinted at an affinity for house music in the past, but here makes good on the promise with a bubbling, bouncy slice of OG garage with enough clout to match an Armand Van Helden record but some freakier interference coming through from PST’s endlessly tweaked synth parts. Rounding the record off, ‘Interi R (part 3)’ swerves towards the back room with a bleepy, sleepy sojourn that nods to early techno while equally slotting into the dreamlike state which lingers over so much of the PST oeuvre. It completes the picture of PST’s approach to techno, which is classically executed but still charged with personality and the starry-eyed idealism of all the best machine music.
OW
Paranoid Pyramid – The Acid Quest EP (Mystical Disco)
It was pleasing to witness Mystical Disco’s 2021 return to vinyl after a six-year hiatus, and here Jackson Lee adds to his stylistically adventurous inventory via an all-new pseudonym with ‘The Acid Quest EP’. Over the years, The American producer has released some pleasingly varied music on his homespun label project. Having previously joined the dots between raw techno and sumptuous deep house, his latest effort sees him veer into the gently cosmic realms of electronica via six analogue-fuelled cuts.
Stripped to the purest of components, the EP’s title track features a melodic 303 lead bubbling over sparse drums before thick pads rise like mist to fill in the sonic gaps. Drifting further off-piste, the weirdo melodics of ‘Deja Vu’ layers detuned synth motifs for a delightfully oddball interlude, before ‘Water Temple’ continues the experimental tone with sinewy bleeps echoing across ethereal pads as machine drums play out a jagged rhythm. Over on the other side, the atmospheric moves continue, starting with the descriptively titled ‘Analog Joint’.
Here, rugged beats throb across celestial pads as discreet synth bursts dart across the panorama, with Lee again employing a less-is-more approach to instrumentation. Breaking up the rhythm, we segue into the off-kilter harmonics of ‘Memphis Prophet’, where nebulous pads cloak staccato synths as they soar over scattered drum machine hits. Completing an absorbing set is the closing jam ‘Birdspeak’, with the familiar sound palette embellished with soothing bird song samples as alien refrains meander through the fog. Coherent, unfettered and full of futurist allure, ‘The Acid Quest’ marks a promising beginning for Lee’s memorable new nom de plume.
PC
Alex From Utopia – DB12 008 (Duca Bianco)
Rimini’s Duca Bianco continue to soar high above the average edit-based imprint with their latest tastefully altered leftfield disco oddities. At their worst, edits don’t improve on the original, are clumsy, or even played out. When done well, as only precious few are, they’re an absolute wonder to behold, breathing new life into long-lost originals, reclaiming musical fragments from overbearing chorus sections, and creating mystical magic on in-the-know floors.
As far as we can deduce, the latest in their revolving artistic line-up is Italian artist, Alessandro Baldini, who here adopts the Alex From Utopia moniker as he delivers a pair of honeyed revisions of esoteric titles. ‘Spanish Guitar Tune’ is billed as being a ‘Pike’s Anthem’, something that’s very easy to believe when the ornamented lead plays out its beautifully melancholic melody. Bittersweet but with a joyful flourish, the accompanying horns, proto-house chords and crisp machine drums elegantly combine over synthetic bass to create a powerfully evocative mood.
The dub version toys with the instrumentation for a subtly alternative, with both tracks working equally well as their respective arrangements ever-so-slightly diverge. Likely to please Balearic silverbacks in their droves, this EP is a sure-fire atmosphere enhancer.
PC
East West – Can’t Face The Night (Emotional Rescue)
The Emotional Rescue gang are in a rightfully celebratory mood as they mark an impressive ten years in the notoriously precarious label racket. That they’ve survived and flourished for as long as they have is a testament to the fine work they do on a regular basis, not least the curatorial efforts of frontman Stuart ‘Chuggy’ Leath, who makes a remix appearance on this wonderful re-issue. East West’s ‘Can’t Face The Night’ originally appeared on a white label via Steve Coe’s Indipop label and is the latest of the late producer’s titles resurrected courtesy of Emotional Response.
Coe is perhaps best known for the high-energy club sound he crafted for the likes of Laura Branigan, Ellie Warren and (Top Of The Pops dance troupe) Pan’s People, but was responsible for some genuinely marvellous curious outside of his more commercially known compositions. ‘Can’t Face The Night’ blends sultry disco chug with Indian-themed melodies as yearning vocal chants echo into the steamy distance. The intoxicating club version is complimented with a charming dub mix, while Chubby’s disco mix carefully stretches the arrangement, a certainty to please Balearic-minded selectors as the hypnotic groove lasts ever longer. Good luck trying to find copies of the original, and even if you do, this lovingly remastered edition will unquestionably be a good deal easier on the wallet or purse.
PC
This week’s reviewers: Oli Warwick, Patrizio Cavaliere.
