Review: Sometime mystery deep house producer Grant - now revealed to be an alias of Frank & Tony member Anthony Collins -has a track record that many of his peers surely envy. To date, he's barely put a foot wrong and "Fantasy Blues", his first full-length outing on Lobster Theremin, is another superb set. Warm, melodious, musically detailed and far more imaginative than most deep house albums you'll hear this, the set sees Collins slip between oven-hot, jazz-funk influenced electronica ("Ephemeral Chase"), revivalist early '90s NYC deep house ("Mind & Space", "Finite Elements"), loose-and-languid ultra-deep goodness ("Amaranthine Profundity", "Blurred Harmony") and the kind of relaxed, intergalactic fare that sits somewhere between ambient techno and ocean-deep dream house. In other words, it's superb.
Review: Los Angeles based Grant heads up The Lauren Bacall, which has presented work by Gable, AVA and Bardot.. but then again they could possibly be more of his own aliases. After his impressive LP entitled Cranks on Mork, he now returns to its parent label Lobster Theremin, with the No Lights EP. It features several servings of house and techno memoirs captured to VHS. Starting off with the neon lit vocal-led anthem "Feeling" (Vocal mix), there's the mandatory lo-fi jam in the form of the darkly stripped back and heads down groove of "Values". The title track is particularly impressive: a woozy and hypnotic after hours groove with some nifty drum computer moves and those moody Mr. Fingers style pads that navigate their way through all the tape saturation.
Review: Grant received much praise for his 2015 debut album, an expansive vinyl double-pack of deliciously deep and woozy house entitled The Acrobat. This relatively speedy follow-up is every bit as potent, with the Los Angeles' producer drawing heavily on his love of spacey Detroit futurism, intergalactic ambience, breakbeat-driven late '80s house, and the kind of club-ready deepness that's just begging to be played loud. Highlights arrive at a furious rate, from the spine-tingling, late night shuffle of "Different Ways", and symphonic "Around The Edge", to the Mr Scruff meets Pepe Bradock grooves of "Cliche", and the far-sighted bump of "Contemplate Reality".
