Review: Almost a quarter of a century into his career as Lawrence, Peter M Kersten continues to deliver impeccably deep dancefloor workouts that somehow manage to be both astonishingly immersive and percussively propulsive. That trademark sound is naturally to the fore on this genuinely triumphant return to Smallville after a nine-hear absence. Check first the brilliant title track, where soft-focus pads, poignant piano motifs and deep bass ride a rock-solid house groove, before turning your attention to the dusty, opaque, slowly unfurling dancefloor beauty of 'Beaver'. Kersten opts for a warmer, drowsier and more hypnotic deep house sound on the similarly gorgeous 'The Swamp', before he doffs a cap to Green and Brown Album-era Orbital via the looped intergalactic synth sounds, analogue synth-bass and swinging house beats of 'Stargazer'.
Review: Shinedoe has commissioned remixes of key tracks from her acclaimed Freedom Riders album. Truncate's take on "Expressionisme" isn't as tough as his own material, but it does marry one of his typically loopy grooves with the original track's synth melodies. Ritzi Lee also strays out of his comfort zone to rework "Shine", putting the focus on tribal drums and razor-sharp percussion. Keith Carnal transforms Shinedoe's recent single, "Wake Up" into a relentless, driving track, but it's the exception rather than the rule for this release. Lawrence's version of "So It Is" closes out the EP, with the German producer delivering a dizzyingly hypnotic take.
Review: Just as the sounds of minimal faded out of fashion in the late noughties, Hamburg's Dial Records started gaining attention with its signature style of understated house and contemplative techno - a breath of fresh air at the time. Perhaps unbeknownst to many then, the imprint was actually founded at the turn of the millennium, so 2020 marks two decades in the business - and certainly cause for celebration. To mark the occasion, the now Berlin-based label has released a series of various artist EPs commemorating the milestone, and this is the fourth one to bring in the year that was. The label's distinct aesthetic as mentioned before is still present: from Jordan GCZ's "Tongue Twister" providing a rather sensual take on mood music, as well as label chief Lawrence bringing his idiosyncratic take on deep house as per usual on the lush "Pinches". Elsewhere, Katie Drover delivers the hypnotic tones of "Precarious", Valencian mainstay Estrato Aurora teams up with Siarem on the evocative electro of "Acacio" and veteran German producer Joern Elling Wuttke dons the new alias Bachelor Kisses, to give us the mellow shoegaze/road trip vibe of "Brighter Than The Sun".
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