- Functional disco-house for rolling DJ sets.
- Cinthie is showing tell-tale signs that she's enjoying a period of inspiration. Since the beginning of last year, the German artist has released six EPs, started a couple new labels and followed her creative moods to explore multiple styles of club music. She had been in a pretty well-defined lane of bumping deep house for a while, but in the last 18 months we've had dips into techno, Dance Mania-style house and disco. It also feels telling that, after releasing a standout EP, Trust, for Aus four months ago she's already back on the label with Mesmerising, a record that builds on the buoyancy of her last Aus EP with three disco-house cuts.
It's easy to picture these tracks working as a surprising burst of colour in a more groove-focussed house set, the type you might expect Cinthie to play. Each is built with punchy kicks and robust basslines, but almost everything else, from the soaring strings to the woody percussion and diva samples, is loose and ecstatic. In fact, Mesmerising feels in the lineage of old Defected or Strictly Rhythm records, where producers basically didn't give a shit about sounding too joyous or OTT. It's a refreshingly free EP in that respect, but more variation between the tracks, which are basically differing arrangements of the same key elements, would have been welcome. So select the title track for the full-throttle experience. Go for "Time To Move" if you want the same thing with more subtleties, and reach for "Dancing" if you wish to keep the groove rolling and feet moving.
TracklistA1 Mesmerizing
A2 Time To Move
B1 Cinthie