teshno

criminally, i’ve never been to secretsundaze. despite that, though, whenever the name crops up a certain sound track begins to play in my head. it’s an unassuming one, a groovy one, and a subtly sexy one. listening to this (a first original release, and the first of any sort – ie mix cd – since 2008) tells me i’ve not been far wrong: i’d be lying if i said it was anything wholly new, but warm, well produced house will never sound tired.

‘do it yourself’ is to-the-point, where the point is to get caught up in a deep, chunky and tunnelling groove and stay there for, in this instance, six and half minutes. cutting through the sub-bloated throb are garage-derived wooden hits and masked female vocal inflections, both of which do little to distract you from the ongoing march, but both of which are important touches to bring the whole thing out of the speakers with a little extra dynamism: no nonsense business, to be sure.

contributing his second track, ‘spacerman funk’ young parisian brawther again harks back to less exhaustingly creative times (good thing), where an unaffected boom-bap, crafted on vintage gear and with suggestive sampling, was enough to get the job done. and frankly, when done as economically yet authentically as this (it’s aged with a lovely dusty crackle), it still is: pure, unadulterated deep house… no more, no less, it’s effortlessly cool.

after reading that, it should come as no surprise to learn that brathwer has been raised under the tutelage of chez damier; whilst traces of pepe bradock and kerri chandler are never that far away. it may surprise you, however, that george fitzgerald is on remix duty. breaking things down into restless, punchier kicks and rattling hits, you dive into deep, hotflush-styled bass territory that’s typically infused with a radiating glow of tonal warmth and refreshing airiness. evolutionary not revolutionary, the whole ep is solid as a rock.

buy it