This week in electro house…

This week in electro house…

21 August, 2009 | 3.30AM

• Written by: Zack Rico
• Filed under: Music News: dj charts, this week in electro house

What a momentus year Wolfgang Gartner is having. Following his recent No.1 smash ‘Wolfgang’s 5th Symphony’ and his in-depth profile on Beatportal, in which the American producer admitted his desire for “constant change”, Youngman returns with what will surely be one of the biggest electro house cuts of the year.

‘Fire Power’ is Wolfgang at his best: perpetual movement, gut-wrenching bass, odd samples, and room-filling sound, and it will no doubt steal the No.1 spot on Beatport next week. There is probably no other producer in electro house who is as meticulous as him right now.

Newcomer Frederick Mooij, a Mexican who began releasing tracks last year, challenges the status quo this week with the piano laden ‘Soulful Ruckuss’. Unlike many of his fellow young gun electro contemporaries, Mooij is exploring other territories beyond the bounce - his recent ‘About Some House’ fused filtered disco flavours with raw bass, and ‘That Feeling’ was summery progressive house - and this track is his best effort at updating old skool house yet.

Mooij’s remix of Lee Mortimer’s ‘This Is Real Shit’ on Wearhouse Music is also worth a mention, as its gnarly bass waves border on acid (that’s a good thing). There aren’t many producers in electro house creating this kind of druggy, 4am, heads down rhythms. 

Another newcomer doing disco-infused electro house brilliantly is Hot Mouth, who recently caught attention with ‘T.E.A.S.E.’, a collaboration with Yacek. Now he returns with a remix of ‘I Don’t Care’ on InStereo Recordings, a lowslung vocal disco number with plenty of musicality.

South African sound engineer Geoff K has been causing waves with his sample heavy fidget house, that sometimes borders on tech house, and his remix of Shab Ruffcut ‘For What’ is a prime example of the sample trickery he’s becoming a master of. Featured on his excellent ‘Puss Puss Cous Cous’ EP, Geoff K chops up the urban vocals and instruments of the track and relayers them as soulful snippets, similar to the way UK garage producers did in the late 90s. Sometimes scatty, the sample placement just manages to hold onto the rhythm before giving way to a booming knee-bending bassline.

While we’re down there, let’s recognize Cape Town’s The Bulgarian, who recently remixed Pablo Calamari’s ‘I Bought My Wife On The Blackmarket’ into a sweat-fueled electro throbber worth grabbing.

WoNK is back with another square wave symphony, and her remix of Skinny ‘Shake It’ is memorable thanks to its African/Indian drum solo in the break. It could be best described as solid and functional.

Bass Kleph tries his hand at breakbeat this week, with a Plump DJs-styled remix of Robb G ‘12 Inch Therapy’. Straddling the border in between breaks and electro effortlessly, tech funk luminaries Elite Force and Meat Katie will find much to love in this one.

Netherlands’ fast rising electro house star Bart B More shows why his remix skills are in demand, with a reworking of Kraak & Smaak’s ‘Ain’t Gonna Take It No More’. His loop-based house approach, combined with dramatic breakdowns and squelchy basslines is impossible to ignore.

Simian Mobile Disco’s new album ‘Temporary Pleasure’ has plenty to rave about, and ‘Ambulance’ is one of the LP’s best dancefloor moments, a twirling synthesized journey filled with layers upon layers of syncopated sounds. It’s the kind of warm yet off-kilter instrumental assaults the duo became famous for. Also worth checking on the album for dancefloor glory: ‘10000 Horses Can’t Be Wrong’ and ‘Synthesise’.

• (4) Comments
• (1890) Views
• Get this week's electro house picks