Review: Amsterdam's (Philippe) Gimbrere teams up once more with his on/off partner-in-crime AP, AKA Maltese producer Owen Micallef, for an outing on Tensnake's True Romance label. 'Love On The Rocks' is a big and balls-y club track from the more commercial side, fusing elements of house, 80s synth-pop and trance into an energetic, euphoric concoction topped with a singalong female vocal that's sure to do the do on the kinds of floors it's aimed at. There are (radio-length) Original and Extended rubs to choose from, while the similarly themed but instrumental and more synth-driven 'Add Up' completes the package.
Review: On this hot-to-trot three-tracker, Tensnake welcomes a couple of new names to the True Romance family, namely Dutch duo T.U.R.F and Australian rising star Sondrio. The threesome hit the ground running with title track 'Higher', a classy disco-house number that sees them wrap a wonderfully organic-sounding, percussively detailed house groove in Soundstream style filtered disco strings and their own twinkling electric piano solos. The disco-fired fun continues on 'Seeing Stars', where rubbery bass guitar, short male vocal samples, swirling disco textures and echo-laden horns catch the ear, before they opt for a quirker, chunkier and more sparsely arranged sound on killer closing cut 'Get It Right'. Serviceable, high-quality club cuts: what's not to like?
Review: It may only be two tracks deep, but Ben Gomori's first outing for Tensnake's True Romance label could well be his best solo release to date. That's a bold claim given the Monologues and Sterns Edits founder's track record in recent years, but it's one we stand by. For proof, check first superb opener 'Choom', a bustling, off-kilter and peak-time ready chunk of jacking analogue house/disco-fusion rich in booming bass, cut-up orchestral stabs, sweaty drums, mind-mangling acid lines and sampled vocals. Equally as inspired is Ground Plain Aerial hook-up 'Karumi', where twinkling piano motifs, dreamy vocalisations and glassy-eyed chords rise above stuttering, delay-laden proto-house drums and a Boyd Jarvis style bassline.
Review: Jozef K doesn't perhaps get the props he deserves, despite a lengthy career and an extensive discography that includes killer cuts on such labels as Chiwax, Let's Play House and Skint. He's in prime form on this two-tracker, which not only marks his first release of 2021, but also his debut on Tensnake's True Romance label. Title track 'Ichika' is simply brilliant, with the frequent Winter Son collaborator wrapping an energetic, sub-heavy groove in effortlessly dreamy chords and the kind of wonderfully emotive, undulating synthesizer lead lines that sound particularly potent when the sun is rising above, or sinking below, the horizon. In contrast, 'Play' is a touch quicker and more intergalactic in tone, with delay-laden drum fills and spacey chords catching the ear.
Review: Tensnake's True Romance label (est. 2017) gather together the cream of their 2020 output on a five-track EP featuring cuts from Maxi Meraci, Kocleo, Street Player, Factory Sequences and Melon Bomb. The EP as a whole operates in the vague hinterland between disco-house and nu-disco, with Street Players' 'Feel My Love' sitting most firmly in the former camp, Factory Sequences' oddly-titled 'Kvcf' most firmly in the latter and the other three cuts somewhere in the middle, while the jazzy keys and disco strings on Melon Bomb's 'Sweetness' make it the standout to these ears.
Review: Four-man crew Melon Bomb's only previous output has been a smattering of re-edits on compilation style releases, so this debut solo single for Tensnake's True Romance label is a significant step in their blossoming career. It's quietly impressive, too, with the Ibiza-based quartet offering up a pair of tracks that are the audio equivalent of sweltering afternoon sunshine. Lead cut "Sweetness" sees them cloak bumping house beats and thickset bass in wavy, delay-laden electric piano snippets, swirling orchestral samples and well-placed spoken word vocal snippets. Virtual B-side "Didn't I" is a little more Balearic in tone, with pulsing, French Touch-style motifs, tropical sound effects and glistening guitar samples riding another chunky bassline and energetic house beats.
Review: Throughout his career to date, Jozef K has been a serial collaborator, releasing a string of well-received EPs in cahoots with regular studio buddy Winter Son. It's notable then, that this first outing for Tensnake's True Romance label sees him on a solo mission. It's a rather fine EP, all told, with opener "Sunshine Music (featuring Lauraell)" brilliantly wrapping swirling, filtered instrumentation and drowsy vocal samples around a tough but atmospheric rhythm track laden in well-placed delay and reverb effects. Elsewhere, "Within My Soul" sees the producer brilliantly build energy via fizzing, effects-laden string stabs and jacking drum fills, "Paris NYC" is a fluttering deep house/French touch fusion and "You Should Have Said Goodbye" is a warm and hypnotic trip into classic U.S deep house territory.
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