Christopher Rau - Marbled World

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  • Hamburg-based Christopher Rau, though relatively new to the game, has in recent years established himself as one of the very finest purveyors of uncluttered, neatly poised deep house. At their finest his productions overflow with imagination, wringing invention from simple materials in a way which is both unobtrusive and deeply absorbing. Rau's release schedule has been well-populated for a few years now, and Marbled World crowns a productive year with singles for Mule Musiq and Thema. "Loot," an unashamedly thumping number, is the disappointment, its forthright chords and crisp sheets of hi-hats not holding many surprises. Elsewhere though, Rau is on finer form. The beautifully airy title track, centred around a gorgeous string and keys loop, manages to be both light-footed and propulsive. At first we're in languid territory, but the intensity climbs quickly towards the midpoint, splashy hats and a subtly funky guitar vamp pushing the thing along. "New Stuff," meanwhile, is an exquisite eyes-down affair, its melancholic keyboard line offset with a dextrous bassline and the delicate instability of its percussive loop. Rau, ever the stickler for detail, implants soft, chirruping synth details and snatches of melody in the background, as if evoking the dawn chorus of some synthetic woodland. Rounding off the package, Lerosa reworks "New Stuff" in a live jam style, upping the intensity in the process. A bashy drum palette and bowel-quaking bassline make it surefire dance floor material, though the dreamy, dissociative melodics that strafe the stereo field in the latter half might give dancers pause for thought. Impressively, we reach a jacking plateau without ever quite losing the original's thoughtful qualities—perhaps because that central keyboard loop is retained for almost the entire track, hovering teasingly on the edge of earshot.
  • Tracklist
      A1 Marbled World A2 Loot B1 New Stuff (Lerosa Rebuff) B2 New Stuff
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