- Dance music changes constantly, but it tends to do so by increments. Real surprises—like, say, a whole collective of producers emerging out of the blue, making smart music with an original twist—are rare. So rare, in fact, that when it does happen it's reasonable to be suspicious. The involvement of the established producer Fold in London's otherwise anonymous Well Street crew suggests that there might be other familiar names behind those aliases. Either way, the label's sound, outlined on a record from Loop LF and this followup EP, is impressively mature, a neat navigation between Livity Sound and slicker deep techno that focusses on syncopated groove and a subtle heads-down mood.
The sound has both club-tool and comedown-mind-melt potential. Loop LF's Stepping Back favoured the latter, but the A-side of this compilation makes more strident moves. Label cofounder Glas Rm eases into the dance with "Fully Dipped," whose loping halftime groove and clipped patois pick up sunlit dub chords as they go. The track's core idea is solid, but it's crowned by the details—especially moments where the master channel chokes on compression—punctuating the flow with duck-outs and dramatic pauses. Fellow label boss Speak7 ups the ante on "Lohan Hands," coming off like Forest Drive West in trippy tribal techno mode. The drums are stern, the low-end sturdy, and the atmosphere erupts in dramatic plumes that might be the ghosts of voices or the shriek of straining metal.
Loop LF brings things down on the B side, loosening that stiffer syncopation into a more fluid slouch and adding teasing percussion layers to heighten the nudge and sway. As with all of these tracks, "Drive 22" takes its time. Demure chord stabs don't enter until several minutes in, before opening into echoey dub space. Closing the EP, a mystery artist (as if the others were known) steers us back into the woozy afterhours zone, submerging elliptical drums in hiss, hum and ultra-deep chords.
TracklistA1 Glas Rm - Fully Dipped
A2 Speak7 - Lohan Hands
B1 Loop LF - Drive 22
B2 Unknown Artist - Untitled