- With so many new deep house producers either copping a bit too much from their influences, imploding into their own weirdness, or going to impossibly great lengths to emphasize their legitimacy through rawness, it's damn refreshing to just hear some jams. And jams are precisely what Boston-based newcomer duo B-Tracks bring to the table on the Specialize EP. Ramping up from good-natured house to peak-time maximalism, B-Tracks cover a whole lot of stylistic ground over these five tracks, and while it occasionally gets the best of them, their dance floor bullishness is contagious.
The title cut starts the EP off just right, sampling like Moodymann over old-school drum machines that mean business. They're right to follow the EP's most derivative moment with its most delicious inclusion, "Day to Night," an epic, morphing workout that's sure to result in more than a few broken air conditioning units in the world's better nightclubs. B-Tracks move into more introspective, tripping territory on "Jump On It" before making a left-turn toward the Berghain on "Progress." The jury is perhaps still out on whether the latter, with its driving kick and space battle synths, is overkill, but I'm guessing there's a DJ set begging for this sort of thing somewhere. Returning to prickly, percussive house—with a decidedly Clone-ish twist—on "Your Love," B-Tracks prove that on commitment to keeping the party moving alone, these guys are ones to watch.
Tracklist A1 Specialize
A2 Day to Night
A3 Jump On It
B1 Progress
B2 Your Love