Review: Julian Marks and Robin Townshend, the duo behind the Gome project, are back on Toy Tonics with a new EP. The EP features the title track, "Elevator Man", which is a wonderfully warming and infectious chunk of samba-tinged deep house/Balearic nu-disco fusion. The track is piled high with attractive synth sounds, loose-limbed Latin house drums, and evocative spoken word vocals. Mike Dunn and Telephones take their turn to revisit "Elevator Man" with some big remixes. Mike Dunn's remix is a rolling, piano-sporting Chicago deep house tweak, while Telephones' remix is a kaleidoscopic take that joins the dots between vintage Italian dream house and tactile Balearic house. The Gome EP is a must-have for fans of deep house, Balearic nu-disco, and anything in between.
Review: Thanks to a righteous debut EP that brilliantly joined the dots between Moroder style machine-disco and shirts-off Italo-disco, hopes are sky-high for this speedy sequel from rising star Gome (real name Stefan Lindblom). Interestingly, he's altered the blueprint a touch this time round, mining boogie and piano house for inspiration. He kicks things off with the pleasingly sleazy, P-funk fuelled electrofunk workout 'Teach You', whose risqu? spoken word vocals are as seductive as they come, before following it up with the sparser, slap-bass sporting 'Erobique Remix'. Elsewhere, 'Come On (Piano Mix)' is a giddy and rushing slab of old school piano house/acid house fusion, while 'Electric Boulevard' is a deep, TB-303 and vocoder-sporting electro number.
Review: Toy Tonics latest signing, Gome, is a Hamburg-based duo who make, in their own words, "good mood music inspired by the 1980 Italo and Munich disco vibe". In practice, that means cheery and colourful cuts that combine electronic instrumentation with jammed-out electric piano riffs, rubbery bass guitar and the odd dash of funk guitar. It's a winning formula all told, with highlights including the jazz-funk-goes-nu-disco warmth of opener 'Fever (of the Night)', the sub-heavy, beatbox electro flavours of 'Bier and Gold (Vocoder Jam)' (not to mention its accompanying extended take with added German rap) and the proto-house-meets-late-80s smoothness of 'Shrimp Cocktail Part 2'. Classy and colourful... what's not to like?