City, Country, City / High Clouds

City, Country, City / High Clouds

Little Big Bee [Flower Records]

5 December, 2007 | 2.27PM

• Section: Music Recommendations
• Written by: Ryan Keeling

Very pleasant slice of Japanese deep-house here from Tokyo’s long-running Flower Records.

Franck Roger, who seems to have been in a rich vein of musical-form recently, is drafted in to provide the alternative perspective.

Little Big Bee comprises of three members, including Flower Records co-founder Eitetsu Takamiya who takes the DJ/producer role within the group.

‘City, Country, City’ perfectly illustrates the band’s live instrumentation approach to a genre in which software is indeed the norm.

The track is a rich collage of sounds and styles, with organs, saxophones and trumpets all staking a place in the stereo field.

For the dance floor this ain’t.

But as a bar-groove, with a heavy emphasis on the simple beauty of the instruments, it works just perfectly.

Franck Roger’s mix could be summed up in two words: wah-wah.

Funk guitar and bass feature heavily in what is essentially a re-touch and re-arrangement of what went before. 

‘High Clouds’ on the other hand is an entirely different beast.

More directly dance floor and super-deep in comparison, the track shows off a capable range to the Little Big Bee sound, venturing into classy, tech-house territory this time.

Solid, warm and encompassing, the track nicely rounds off a well-executed EP.

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