- Simon Hinter's fourth appearance on Phil—the limited-run, vinyl-only label owned by Philogresz—feels oddly dated. His brand of intricately detailed deep house, littered with fleeting piano licks and percussive trills, channels the mid-'00s microhouse of Freude Am Tanzen, where basses are chunky and samples flicker in and out, each close-mic'd and almost too sharply in focus.
Both originals centre on an agile sub, each note offset slightly against the kick so the tracks move with a mild limp. Hinter's proved himself apt at the deep house tear-jerker—tracks like "Better Life" and "Take Care" had that Stimming-like blend of texture and melody—but in both "Pacific" and "Stay" programming takes sole precedence. But whether it's the former's metallic clangs, or the latter's organic drums and horns, both are too clinical to make an impact beyond an appreciation of their complexity.
The remixes, however, take a different approach. Toronto's Basic Soul Unit hacks away at "Stay"'s sheen with rusty drums, and dissolves the piano riff in a bubbling acid squelch. It's as though he's held up a fairground mirror to the original, and each element is reflected back bulbous and uncanny. Philgoresz's take on "Pacific" is more sympathetic, extending the original features rather than breaking them—the synths become warped pads, the toms are wrapped in echo—to fashion something far more substantial.
Tracklist A1 Pacific
A2 Pacific (Philogresz shift)
B2 Stay
B2 Stay (Basic Soul Unit's Cut)