- There's plenty to get your teeth into on Scott "thatmanmonkz" Moncrieff's debut for Tone Control. The Sheffield producer—one-half of production team Small Arms Fiya with Toddla T—uses classic house tropes as a base before throwing all kinds of toppings across it. "That Would Be Alright," one of three tracks using yet another Steel City resident, Pete Simpson, on vocals, lashes a fluid funk bassline to a loop of pulsing Hammond organ and a staccato guitar lick. But things really come to life on "The Man," a dark sample-heavy house trawl with snappy hi-hats, woodblocks and a steam-driven rhythm. The inclusion of the sample from Vic Juris' "Horizon Drive," as used on Gang Starr's "Mass Appeal," merely adds to the tasty old school flavour.
Moncrieff comes at "Alaf" from an entirely different direction altogether, Simpson's voice this time adopting a soulful croon amid a musical setting of double bass-led downtempo house. Finally, the stripped back kicks and percussive clacks on "Dreamin" soon give way to Simpson's chocolately vocals and an intricate bassline making its spidery way across them, eventually settling down into some Defected-style soul-soaked 4/4 business. It all amounts to an accomplished EP that's neither overtly experimental nor wilfully mild.
Tracklist 01. That Would Be Alright
02. The Man
03. Alaf
04. Dreamin