Atlanta is beginning to sound like a mini-Detroit. Motor City native Kai Alcé has been holding it down there for a while, and now a younger generation of warm, soulful house producers has cropped up. Byron The Aquarius, who splits his time between Atlanta and Birmingham, has been issuing warm, boogie-style cuts on labels like Wild Oats and Sound Signature, Jay Simon's Must Have Records has its HQ in the city and young producers like Fit Of Body and TWINS are carving out their own oddball lanes there. Atlantan artist Stefan Ringer splits the difference between Detroit-style house and a newer, wonkier template, and tastemakers have been taking note. Within the last couple years, he's issued his idiosyncratic tracks on labels like Alcé's NDATL, How To Kill, Peoples Potential Unlimited and local imprints CGI and Harsh Riddims. Ringer is one of the city's brightest young stars, and his new release on Argot, Bossa Grv, continues demonstrating as much.
There's not much to "Bossa Grv": Ringer dumped a lilting guitar sample from a Getz & Gilberto record into his MPC and teased it out over a twitchy drum track. But the rhythms are enough to set Ringer apart. While most producers are content to ride a monotonous kick for eight minutes, he switches things up every 16 bars, working with a drum kit that includes white noise, a stutter-step kick and a ride cymbal that crescendos into the beautiful sample. His inability to play things straight might make "Bossa Grv" tough on DJs, but the approach is memorable. Even the bonus beats version, stripped of all melodic content save a steady three-note bassline, is full of personality.
B-side "To The Bone" feels like Ringer's tribute to Dance Mania, full of bedspring percussion and smash-and-grab snare patterns. But it maintains a swinging, deep groove. The tune's smooth synth sax and tough, melodic bass put it in the realm of Vincent Floyd's dreamy Dance Mania records.
There's not much to "Bossa Grv": Ringer dumped a lilting guitar sample from a Getz & Gilberto record into his MPC and teased it out over a twitchy drum track. But the rhythms are enough to set Ringer apart. While most producers are content to ride a monotonous kick for eight minutes, he switches things up every 16 bars, working with a drum kit that includes white noise, a stutter-step kick and a ride cymbal that crescendos into the beautiful sample. His inability to play things straight might make "Bossa Grv" tough on DJs, but the approach is memorable. Even the bonus beats version, stripped of all melodic content save a steady three-note bassline, is full of personality.
B-side "To The Bone" feels like Ringer's tribute to Dance Mania, full of bedspring percussion and smash-and-grab snare patterns. But it maintains a swinging, deep groove. The tune's smooth synth sax and tough, melodic bass put it in the realm of Vincent Floyd's dreamy Dance Mania records.
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Published /
Thu / 9 Jun 2016 -
Words /
Matt McDermott -
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Tracklist /
A1 Bossa Grv
A2 Bossa Grv (Drum Track)
B1 To The Bone
New York
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