Sonnox (Owain K Newfoundland Tweak) - (5:52) 120 BPM
Review: Akra's "Sonnox", a picturesque chunk of melodious deep tech-house full of enveloping pads, saucer-eyed melodies and tactile beats, was criminally overlooked when it first slipped out on Teng back on 2012. Three years on, Nick Woolfson's unheralded gem gets the remix treatment. While Arka's chunky, nu-disco influenced Funk Da Edit version is pretty tasty, it's Yard One's shimmering, two-step influenced tech house take and Gnork's spiralling, Motor City techno-goes-deep house reinvention that really stands out. There's also a low-slung, spaced-out revision from Dessous man Owain K, whose stock seems to be rising with each successive project.
Review: Fledging label Teng follows up on the recent impressive Neville Watson record with Mias Void's Tactics. Coming from roughly the same sonic angle as Watson, the title track features eerie acid lines and ponderous chords underpinned by doubled up claps. "Believer" meanwhile is more restrained and informed by the modern European and UK trance sounds - think Nathan Fake and Traum - as lullaby melodies unfold over tinkling rhythms. The final track is also an introspective one, with the seductive piano tinkling and warbling bass prevailing on the Barking Dogs version of "Tactics"- an understated end to the latest missive from this promising label.
Review: Sometime KiNK collaborator and supreme drum machine manipulator Neville Watson precedes a new LP for Creme with this excellent release for the Teng imprint. The One Four Green EP surrounds the one original cut from Watson with some well chosen remixes by Perseus Traxx and Deep Space Orchestra. Watson's original comfortably saunters through the tracks arrangement like a speeding buggy cruising down a freeway of snappy claps and marching snares, while DSO filters out Watson's intended bassline, compensating his remix with an ensemble of synths and varied drum patterns instead. Perseus Traxx pushes down deeper, dragging out a continued and fluctuating lead that traverses back behind the tracks bass, before making itself know once more to a flurry of percussion.
Review: When the world outside your front door is dark, cold and wet, and you just want to wrap yourself in a high-tog duvet, "Sonnox" is the track you should reach for. Warm, fluid and melodic, it's the deep house equivalent of a hot toddy and a Lemsip, shaken, not stirred. The rest of the EP follows similarly gorgeous and heartwarming lines, with "Stir Fried" adding a little stripped-back percussion to Akra's sinewy, near-Balearic melodies. Closer "Hard To Create", meanwhile, is the aural version of those weird, lucid dreams you get when you're struggling with a dose of man-flu - all liquid IDM synths, darting Global Communications melodies and skittish analogue drums.
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