- Manuel Tur isn't just a talented deep house producer. Like many of his Freerange brethren, he gets deep house, intensely and completely. The Spanish-German producer's tracks, particularly on his third long-player, Es Club, are beautifully distilled paradigms of the genre. He knows all of the modern deep house rules—subtle, linear arrangements, rounded sound design, spare use of vocals and all the rest—and follows them thoughtfully and precisely. But Tur's music is no by-the-numbers version of the style. Instead, it serves as a reminder of how emotive and beautiful deep house can be.
Es Cub was recorded in a small studio that Tur set up in Ibiza—a peaceful part of the island, dense with trees and far from the megaclubs—and it shows: the feel of the album is lush and sensuous. At the same time, it's slightly more stripped down than much of his previous work. With a few exceptions, like the sweetly buoyant "MKS-70," Tur's rich melodies are pared back, and most cuts rely on only a few elements to work their magic. Es Cub is brimming with subtle momentum and blissful sounds, with only the occasional bit of synth squelch or eccentric syncopation distracting from the LP's luscious feel. A gently throbbing bass and quietly insistent four-note keyboard pattern propel "Flux," while a gently building string wash adds drama to the song. The melancholic "About To Fall," with its synapse-teasing rhythmic interplay and melancholy ambience, could almost pass for a lost Charles Webster track. "Werk" drifts in a sea of swirling and shimmering synths. The best of all might be the title track, as the tune's understated Latin rhythms and soaring keys attain something close to dance floor perfection.
Much of the album comes off as modern take on mid-'00s Âme or, perhaps, a slinky and subdued interpretation of Objektivity's catalog of propulsive rhythms. Some might feel that its overriding dreamy aura makes Es Cub a bit too tranquil; admittedly, there are very few sharp edges on the album, and as with a dream, the particulars tend to become a bit fuzzy after the fact. But that's probably OK with Tur, a producer with an obvious passion for deep beats. This is among the most seductive collection of house tracks so far this year.
Tracklist01. Ara Anam
02. Es Cub
03. About To Fall
04. Werk
05. El Soplo
06. Flux
07. Basilia
08. MKS-70
09. Es Dub
10. Agrafena