EP Review: Crying Over You - J Cub feat. Bibi

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​Crying Over You - J Cub feat. Bibi

​Crying Over You is the latest EP to come out of the Saints & Sonnets, Huxley and Jimmy Poster's label.

J Cub is actually Jacob Kelly and here he teams up with vocalist Bibi to create​ a blissfully laid back house track. Slow, soulful vocals from Bibi front a track of tight hi-hats, warm pads and a gently rumbling bass. The original track isn't even remotely aimed at the dance floor - it is a pure, chilled house record for lazy days by the pool.

Instead two remixes have responsibility for​ creating something to make you move and so the original is actually bookended by these two mixes. BNJMN's take opens the EP and it's an organic-feeling dub of the original. The vocals are edited to turn them into additional instrumentation within the record and the track strikes a series of uplifting chords - the layered percussion create something less dense than a house track, closer to the soulful spin on dubstep that Joy Orbison has had such success with, albeit slower.

​The closing remix comes from Dial's RNDM and it is the most conventional of the three versions here. The vocal is cut up and spliced across the track's length, giving it a deep, sensual sound. It still ultimately retains the laid back feeling of the original but layers in some faster low-end bass lines resulting in a more progressive house feel.

Whilst the original is a pleasingly chilled effort it is the BNJMN mix that really shines here.​

Crying Over You is released through Saints & Sonnets on 14 August on 12", following thereafter digitally.​

EP Review: Midnight City - Balthazar

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Midnight City - Balthazar​

On this new release through Pulsewith Balthazar creates seperate distinct moods across the four tracks that make up his Midnight City EP.

A taught, swirling pressurised summer house track, 'Midnight City' builds through layers of strumming bass and female vocals to create a fairly straight up but catchy track. It is the loose, echoing feel of the rhythm section that sticks, capturing the hot feeling of the night time urban watershed moment the title references.

'Sons of Guns' is a slower and more foreboding offering - synths pick out melodies that create interference with a slightly labour-intensive bassline whilst the sound of distorted gasps of air punctuate the record, representing the windy deserts of the Westerns that inspire this track. It's a dark and cruel sounding environment, the occasional jangling guitar lines not the kind of thing you expect on a house record.

'Hopefully' is more urban and with a hint of the sleaze of Matthew Dear's gloriously debauched 'You Put A Smell On Me'. It's a thick, chunky track of deep electronic bass and robotic rhythms with a dramatic white noise ghost train peak and it's the tightest track offered up here.

The EP finishes on 'In The Face Of Death', a more ambient track than the others. It's a whirl of clicks and warm pads that builds to a cavernous, hollow sounding bass line that ends the release on a suitably climatic note.

Midnight City is released today through Pulsewith.​

EP Review: Trinket - Last Waltz

Image source: Dalston SuperstoreLast Waltz are trio Geoff Leopard, Mick Rolfe and El.Dee and when they aren't making electronic music they are celebrating it through their Dada parties set in England's North East. Trinket, to be released through the pretty much on fire Future Boogie, is their debut release.

The title track is a free fall through space, warm cosmic rays sweeping past the listener as half-formed refrains of piano echo past and a determined glockenspiels are scattered across the soundscape. And it keeps coming back to the same momentum establishing bass line - at times it drops away, emphasising the tightly wound constructions, but it always comes back.

In contrast 'Ashes' is steady, a drum beat marking the way forward like lights rhythmically illuminating the motorway. Still equally cosmic it also features a deep analogue melodic bass but the vicious toms and hi-hats drenched in reverb steal the show.

London-based Bad Passion provide a remix of 'Trinket' that is more direct. The smattering of percussion and the piano continue to work well but the drum beat feels needlessly harsh and the speed too fast in comparison to Last Waltz's effortless original.

Trinket is out now on vinyl and released on MP3 on 12 August 2012, available from Amazon.co.uk here and here when released respectively [affiliate links].

EP Review: Obstructing The Light - Tom Demac

It hasn't been long since Tom Demac's last release, a collaboration with up and coming Manchester band Silverclub, was giving me dark and dubby dreams of a hot and humid summer. Here we are with a follow-up, this time on Glass Table.

Given my experience of Demac's production work was previously confined to a collaborative effort I was surprised to hear this release. Silverclub's Duncan Edward Jones is on hand for the title track but there is an apparent pop element to not just that one but two of the tracks that make up the EP.

And so vocals weave in-and-out of themselves in a a swirling melange of melodies on 'Four Leaves Right'. It builds to a storming, sweaty climatic middle-third of fuzzy bass and cried vocals - it is just a slight disappointment that from here Demac seems unsure what to do next, the track hanging around for another three-minutes when it has already reached its peak.

'Obstructing The Light' itself feels woozy, a slow hot druggy trudge that feels like energy being sapped away by the time those vocals from Jones turn up. It's a soundtrack to hazy days of sunshine and losing your way and so whilst it won't feature in many peak time DJ sets it captures a disconcertingly paranoid mood.

Finally 'For The Love Of Grey' applies the same formula to a more focused minimal house structure. The same feeling of sunstroke and unease remains but the vocals are (mostly) absent, leaving a loosely structured cacophony of percussion and disjointed piano chords. Its conflicted feeling transcends the rest of the EP to create the real stand out moment of this release.

Obstructing The Light is released through Glass Table on Monday.

EP Review: Room Service - Citizen

Just in time for the (very delayed and probably very brief) British summer comes this hot and steamy release on Love Fever Records from Citizen.

Love Fever were born out of underground parties in London's east end and their sound is heavy on a sleazy erotica inspired by those parties and liberally applied to tech-house. Citizen is the alter-ego of South Londoner Laurence Blake and here he delivers three hot and sweaty electronic workouts.

The EP opens with title track 'Room Service' on the a-side, a large echoey track with soft, soulful vocals in juxtaposition to rough layers of distorted synthesiser. Blake teams up with Detroit's Jimmy Edgar on 'Deeper Touch' and they create a slightly softer but snappy techno track with snippets of drum patterns and bass layered together whilst a female vocal is twisted and manipulated over the top.

The second solo cut and final track on the EP is Citizen's 'You Give Me That Something' and it's the best of the three. A cow bell melody builds an warm, open atmosphere whilst another soulful male vocal builds to a drop that rewards listeners with warm pads and a deep, dubby bass line. It's the most fully realised track here and wraps you in a warm stillness perfect for outdoor dancing. Roll on summer!

Room Service is released on Love Fever on Monday.