If you chip away the jagged and industrial bits of minimal techno, you’re left with the more accessible and straight-edged sound known as tech house. Now here is the interesting bit people have recently cottoned onto: add a pinch of soul and a not-so-obvious melody, and voila, you’ve got deep house. Both Plasmik and Jamie Jones have been making the transition to the latter recently with modern interpretations of older influences. Deep house is back and getting its due.
Plasmik’s ‘Pearls On a String’ approaches slowly like a well-rehearsed lap dancer, all control and tease in its first half. The groove is tight, less jacking than the duo’s ‘Eight To Nine’ on Connaisseur, currently the cause of a stir on the underground, but it builds in layers, stirring emotions, and even toying with your patience – which I like – before five minutes in revealing a malfunctioning music box at its centre. The tight arrangement and pulsating beats recall the early NY house of Mr. Fingers or Mateo & Matos, but if you’re looking for the usual minimal tech found on CTR, you might be disappointed.
Jamie Jones captains the flips, celebrating his ‘Get Lost 2’ compilation release with an edit of ‘Panama City’. After his hectic release schedule on Freak N Chic and Poker Flat, this dials down the intensity slightly, pushing more towards the sound of a sunny Sunday rave. Jones strips the track to its core elements and makes it nice and easy for the dance floor. I’m very much in favour of the stabbing vocals and vintage keys, but the striking thing is how nostalgic it is, nodding to heads like Kenny Larkin and Kenny Hawkes rather than Mathew Jonson (see: ‘Amazon’).
This release reinforces the fact that deep house is here to stay (for a little while at least), and that the new guns understand it as a sound cemented in dance music’s past. If you like labels like Connoisseur or tracks like ‘The Sun Can’t Compare’, check these two shooting stars venturing into deep space.
Tracklist: Jamie Jones & Plasmik - Get Lost 2 Sampler
A Jamie Jones - Panama City
AA Plasmik - Pearls On A String
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