Review: 12 years have now passes since Scott Diaz made his debut. Since then, he's taken his distinctive brand of quality deep, occasionally tech-tinged house to labels including Simma Black, Sub_Urban, Quantize Recordings and Papa Records. Here he returns to the Grand Plans imprint he founded in 2016 with four more slabs of refined deepness. The Brighton-based producer begins by joining the dots between dusty deepness and bolder, UK garage-influenced flavours on 'The Soul Fusion Track', before blurring the boundaries between broken beat, deep house and deep garage on 'Dancing Shoe'. The fun continues on 'The Trouble Track', a classic-sounding slab of London style late '90s deep house, while the 'No MC' version of 'The Soul Fusion Track' does exactly what it says on the label.
Review: Earlier in the year, Scott Diaz joined forces with LOA for a fine collaborative single, 'Somewhere Else', on Sub Urban. This speedy follow up sees him in collaborative mode once more, sharing top billing with Cathy Battistessa, a vocalist he last worked with on 2020 single 'You & I'. 'The Ocean', which is available in (superior) extended and original mix forms, is another woozy, picturesque chunk of luscious deep house loveliness in which Battistessa's emotive, evocative vocals rub shoulders with warming electric piano motifs and marimba style melodies over a deep, rumbling sub-bass line and bouncy, Afro-house influenced beats. It's an effortlessly summery effort all told, and a track that's just crying out to be played loud in the sunshine.
Review: Since first appearing on our radar back in 2011, Brighton's Scott Diaz has released material on an impressively large number of labels. This, though, is his first appearance on Grand Plans. He's not alone either with little-known studio buff Max Footwork sharing production credits. On opener "There's No Time To Waste", the duo manages to get a near perfect balance between sumptuous electronic fluidity and chunky late night bounce, while "Risky Disco" wraps classic discos around an impressively rubbery deep house groove. Arguably best of all, though, is ear-catching closer "Pleasures", in which Diaz and Footwork combine the best of 4/4 UK garage (heavy bass, skipping drums, cut-up female R&B vocals) and seductive deep house (chiming melodies and Christmas-rich chords).
Review: Scott Diaz has a sizeable discography to his name, so it's little surprise that his latest expansive EP for Grand Plans is a mature and superbly produced affair. Check, for example, the grown-up feel of opener "Mistreated", where heart-aching soulful house vocal samples ride a backing track full of jazz-flecked drums, twinkling music box melodies and yearning chords. The same sort of praise could be heaped onto the languid electric pianos, bumping beats and half spoken, half sung vocals of "Take It Back" (where vocalist KE urges us all to focus on the music, rather than the technology DJs now use), as well as the sample-heavy smoothness of "I Sold My Soul". In other words, it's a luscious EP for those who like their house deep and soulful.
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