Braille At Juno Download

Review: Having already contributed to two Sepalcure releases for Hotflush, Praveen Sharma adopts his Braille guise for a debut solo outing on Paul Rose's increasingly multi faceted label. Fans of Sharma's unveiling of the Braille sound via that illuminating release for Rush Hour's Direct Current release will be rightfully excited by the four tracks here. Continuing to explore Sharma's love for the house sound, there's a vintage soulful element inherent throughout though it's flushed with the kind of frosted futurist slant that makes the Braille sound so appealing. The undulating rhythmic swerves of "Riverbed" in particular stand out, not least for little satisfying production nuances such as the intermittent cracks of a kick drum. Elsewhere delicate samples mangle with brilliantly loose drums on the cavorting "Breakup" whilst "Chain Gang" mutates brilliantly from the early expert sample manipulations into an explosion of soaring textures filled with glorious colour.

Review: In recent times, Rush Hour's Direct Current offshoot has been a constant source of inspirational, dancefloor-baiting material. Seemingly designed to offer a retro-futurist take on house from producers perhaps better known for their more experimental material - see the thrilling, head-warping releases from Cosmin TRG and BNJMN - the imprint has rarely put a foot wrong. This two-tracker fits neatly into the RH DC template: Braille is a new pseudonym for Praveen, one half of post-dubstep visionaries Sepalcure. In true Direct Current style, the tracks presented here offer a cutting-edge take on house music that gives classic Chicago jack and the melodic futurism of Detroit a fresh new twist. "The Year 3000" opens with a delay-laden vocal snippet from Sterling Void's Chicago classic "It's Alright", before sprinting off on a woozy journey into 21st century Euro-jack. "Leavin' Without You" treads a similar path, but offers more basic, straightforward thrills; a heartfelt vocal sample nimbly dances round a ricocheting rhythm of off-beat 4/4 percussion, densely layered chords and mind-altering FX. Like its impressive A-Side, "Leavin' Without You" is off-kilter late night house music of the highest order. Essential.