- "Some people want house," intones guest vocalist Kevin Reynolds over "Habitation Micturation," one of four tracks whose near-unutterable fratboy titles ("Man, I'm So Into Mongo Raw Right Now" is a sentence that should never, ever leave the confines of this review) lend themselves not to the easily embarrassed, nor the easily offended.
Some people do want "house," but what kind? Creme Organization have been wont to present much of their output in as straightforward a fashion as Reynolds' clipped missive suggests. Chicago producer Alex Israel, releasing his first EP for the Dutch imprint, curates a dense collage of lysergic sound signatures, mirroring contemporaries such as D'Marc Cantu. It's the sort of sonic landscape created on gear so analogue it needs a kickstart every so often by a dozen soot-faced engineers and a coal furnace.
Though the A-sides will preoccupy plenty of dance floors, it's the titular "Front Butt" that should take the plaudits. A strange sort of dichotomy renders it both hype and heartfelt: just as the shuttling drum work and deranged modular freakouts begin to plateau, a melody faintly redolent of a lost New York house classic lulls the closing minutes into a somnambulant drift. In this moment, Israel betrays a sophistication that his mischievous streak otherwise tries its best to conceal.
TracklistA1 Mongo Raw
A2 Habituation Micturation feat. Kevin Reynolds
B1 Front Butt
B2 White Monkey Holding Peach