- The promising Irish producer launches a new series on Denis Sulta's label.
- Cromby has been tapped to launch Denis Sulta's Silver Service, a new series from Sulta Selects. Born Chris McCormick, Cromby is a longtime resident of Belfast's Shine club, where six years honing a knack for epic dance floor bangers developed an ear for texture and nuance. His take on sample-friendly house and techno has already appeared on Berlin's Tenderpark, and shows itself again on Futurola.
Futurola is faster and more insistent than last year's Rushmore Basement Tracks. There, tracks like "Passenger Seat Driver" and "Running" had a cool swagger, where downtempo rhythms and chilled-out pads swathed carefully selected vocal samples. The raw drums and concentrated beats, though, were as central then as they are now. Futurola tracks like "Barneymania" might have less going on texturally, but the stripped-back quality heightens its impact, especially when the way basslines drop out for a breakdown and aqueous chords ripple through the drum machine rhythms. When a familiar house vocal sample appears midway through the churning motion of "Futurola," you feel it. But while that track has more potential as a body-mover, "Fandango" is the most sonically exciting, with a firm square wave that bounces through a dazzling weave of modulations. It suggests more stylistic variations from Cromby are to come.
TracklistA1 Futurola
B1 Barneymania
B2 Fandango