Rob's Future House Reviews - January 2010

Alex Santer - Sweet Tones (Mecha Recordings)

Santer’s debut release on Mecha proves his talent for creating devastating hypnotic grooves without resorting to the obvious. The template for ‘Sweet Tones’ is a chuggy, dubbed out drum-track, a super low bassline and cheeky cut-up vocal morphed and stuttered to perfection. This is pure New York big-room house straight out of Greece and one of Santer’s best efforts yet. ‘Toobee’ is a little more laid back in intensity but makes up for it in quality. Again, nothing is overdone, just a sparse chugging groove paired with a looped vocal backing. Santer has been a low-key creator of quality music for ages and this proves again why. Mecha Recordings

Itokim - Long Way Down (Organica Music Labworks)

Japan’s Itokim makes music which you’d expect if you got Technasia and Deep Chord in the sack together - techno with a soulful, silky vibe which he's shown over a dozen or so quality tracks in the past 18 months. His debut on Organica Music Labworks is no different and hits the sublime almost from the get-go. Pairing sparse, percussive keys with a deep groove gives ‘Long Way Down’ a floaty vibe without sacrificing dance floor appeal. In short, this is the shit. Label owner Tony Blunt’s remix goes for a more linear tech-house groove while keeping the percussion and lower key elements quite close to the original. The final track, ‘Things She Said’, is more abstract blade-runner type tech-house. Organica on Junodownload

Pawel Kobak - 99/66 EP (Lace Music)

Pawel Kobak drops just the sort of acid inspired tech-house which would kick most dance floors into high gear. ‘Nine Tee Nine’ is the opener here and it doesn’t disappoint with a chuggy old-school bassline and incremental levels of madness as the acid line is tweaked and added to. Imagine a stadium anthem slowed down with the cheese removed and you’ll get the general idea. The flipside, ‘Six Tee Six’, is also a solid track along similar lines but more of a 4am basement track bridging prog, electro and acid. A solid release with a monster groove from one of Sweden’s most reliable producers. Lace Music on junodownload