Julius Steinhoff - Out in the Woods

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  • Thus far, Julius Steinhoff's solo output has been limited to one track on the Smallville ...And Suddenly It's Morning compilation, but the Hamburg producer's impact on deep house has been profound through the founding of the Smallville record shop and label. That's why it's no surprise to hear the quiet expertise that soaks through to the surface on the dissolute layers of his first release for Swedish label Geography. Smallville has been one of the most dependable purveyors of languid deep house, and Steinhoff's turn on Geography works the same vibe of druggy, celestial stargazing. "A Mischief of One Kind and Another"'s synths and strings bleed together in a beautifully marbled melange, almost akin to smoothed-off shoegaze. The synths swallow up the percussion and the song's most attractive sections are the ones completely devoid of percussion or nudged gently along by a single element. The two tracks on the flipside more conventionally favour their rhythm sections, with the syrupy synths hanging in the back rather than flooding the foreground, but the drums are always kept in that curious, encased stasis. "Out in the Woods" buries a sonorous chord progression behind flickering vocal samples and chunky bass, while "Zealand" focuses almost entirely on its Lazy Susan of panning chords rotating around a dull kick drum.
  • Tracklist
      A Mischief Of One Kind and Another B1 Out In the Woods B2 Zealand
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