Review: Forteba's last solo single, July 2021's Harmonia on Batvia, cannily combined tough tech-house drums and weighty, moody bass with ultra-dreamy chords and other musical elements borrowed from deep house. The Hungarian producer edges closer to classically warming, dubby deep house while retaining his trademark tech-house drums on 'I Need My Scooter Back', the opening track from his first EP on Plastic City. He opens the curtains, admires the sun and then casually strides towards the beach on Balearic-tinged mid-tempo deep house delight 'Funky Business', before wrapping a sparse, dubby micro-house groove in enveloping chords and slow-burn melodies on EP highlight 'Tabella'.
Review: Longstanding German label Plastic City return with Radio Show Season Eight, featuring boss man Terry Lee Brown Jr doing what he does best on the evocative dub house journey "Lightseeker" (a remix of the artist Phable), while more Basic Channel inspired tracks come from Alex Connors & Hardy Heller, whose remix of Maxie Koenig 's "Buddhas Breath" explores similarly cavernous and glacial territory. Elsewhere, pursuing more quality standards are: Gabriel Sordo (Mex) on the bass-driven late night deepness of "Lunario", Smalltown Collective with the funky and acid washed tech house of "Nobody" and Rene Onze with the sleazy afterhours minimal bump of "Schnurz".
Review: Evangelical deep house from Tronic Soundz second This Is Awesome compilation, bringing together a string of dubbed out, acousmatic and synth-based cuts good enough for the poolside manners of Miami and beyond. Ferns, bright lights, a bar, good atmosphere...white pants and gold chains...even hawaian shirts...or is that just from listening to Forteba's "Olive & Fruit". Get your heavier tracks still but with that discotheque touch in Ecilo's "Revisited" next to some neo-classical and acoustic tips from Paul2Paul's "Let Me Be" (think Robert Miles) and G.Pal's techier "Holdin On". Some trance minimalisms from Maxie Konig in "Radio Brehst" and the sweet as dubbed-out funk from Nacho Romero's remix of "Limited Edition". This Is Awesome, totally wicked.
Review: After the great success of his first four albums on Plastic City, critics and fans of Krisztian Dobrocsi aka Forteba can rejoice for his fifth long player entitled Arboretum. He hails from the Hungarian city of Vac, where he found his true calling relatively early. At 18 he started producing electronic music of all styles. Starting off with breakbeat and chill-out music, he soon ventured into the world of straight 4/4 rhythms, profoundly inspired by German deep house. The Hungarian follows up 2015's Fabula EP marvellously here, featuring a dozen sublime cuts (plus a continuous mix) such as the deep, late night mood-lighting of "Fall For One", the bittersweet and personal nu-disco of "Farred" or the emotive and soulful Ron Trent vibe of "Fancylvania".
