Ben La Desh At Juno Download

Review: The fourth drop on the fledgling Outernational ensures standards are maintained with James Johnston and Ben La Desh providing a track on each side. Glaswegian producer Johnston is in fine form currently, having established the No Matter What label he runs with Alex Agore in the collective hearts of the deep house cognoscenti, and "That Was Now" is a sublime example of embellishing thick set house music with the spirit and soul of classic disco. Hints of glistening strings and a well plucked bass guitar sit deep in the mix as the packed groove builds effortlessly towards a quite lovely drop and build back into a final movement where the subtle disco elements become more prominent. Not to be outdone, Dutch juvenile delinquent Ben La Desh counters with "Drug Carrier", a quite intoxicating burner that's got several distinct rhythmic movements, with the point where some wide filtering introduces a heavy vibing Baltic disco mid section.

Review: When quizzed about his debut full-length before a Juno Plus party last year, John Talabot paused for a minute. "It's not really house, more electronica - like a proper album," he finally remarked. It's an apt description. Fin is clearly rooted in house - and the kind of melody-driven, atmospheric tackle that the Barcelona-based producer excels at - but it's certainly not a dancefloor-focused set. There are off-kilter downtempo moments, slo-mo compositions and twisted beatscapes that recall the impossible-to-pigeonhole antics of Hyetal (circa "Broadcast"), Sepalcure and Instra:Mental. Then there's closer "So Will Be Now" (one of two collaborations with Pional), a near-genius chunk of future garage/deep acid house fusion that's so beautiful it almost hurts. As transformations go, Fin is stunning.