Baldo is one of those steadfast DJ/producer/label boss types, a cornerstone of house music in his home city. In his case, that's Barcelona, where he runs Good Ratio Music and Neovinyl with his pal Carlos. You'll find him supporting headline DJs like Gerd and Nick Höppner when they come to town, but this EP for Andrade's Street Knowledge shows he's got studio skills too.
"In the Crowd" chops up '90s-style garage vocals with straight-up deep house tropes—trippy synth flourishes and lazy, groaning bass. Le Loup takes the title track down a dubby route, characterised by some wonderfully fluid drum programming. (If the Parisian producer has put a foot wrong in the last 18 months, I've not heard it.)
Back with Baldo, "Glass Table" is a squelchy march through warm jets of acid and fuzzy bass, while "Drifting Off" delivers drifting synth rollers breaking over quaking bass. Completing this pan-European EP, young Berlin-based Greek John Dimas takes the acidic DNA of "Glass Table," remaps its squiggle, and attaches it to punchy, high-kicking house with jaunty bass. A refreshingly quirky finale to a no-nonsense package.
Tracklist: Baldo - Far Away
A1 In The Crowd
A2 In The Crowd (Le Loup Remix)
B1 Glass Table
B2 Drifting Off
Digital: Glass Table (John Dimas Quadral Remix)
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