- Italo for big rooms, executed well.
- Dusky's Life Signs Vol. 1 is the 16th record Running Back has released so far this year. For context, it had a very busy year in 2018 and released the same number of records. This maniacal 2019 run has included a follow-up to Krystal Klear's smash-hit EP, a remix release that featured Pépé Bradock and Ricardo Villalobos, an album from Tiger & Woods, and EPs by popular artists like KiNK, Genius Of Time, DJ Tennis and Neil Landstrumm. If I were a close friend of Gerd Janson, the label boss, I'd be tempted to message him: "r u ok hun?" The quality of these releases, though, has been pretty high, and when it comes to house and disco with a mainstream lean, Running Back could easily be the scene's leading label, an idea that's given more weight by this new one from Dusky.
Fittingly enough, the pair turn to Italo on "Boris Borrison's Trip To Morrisons," a sound that's been working for Running Back of late. Dusky's brand of Italo is, unsurprisingly, massive, with a beaming arpeggio bassline, a snare roll in the breakdown, urgent synth chords and a general feeling of roofs being raised. This sense of scale is maintained on the other two tracks, which borrow heavily from dewy-eyed rave. "Static" is cut from the same euphoric cloth as Bicep's "Glue," while "Lea Valley," a tribute to the area of London that's long been an illegal rave spot, mixes some house tropes with its E-rush pianos and synthesisers. Like much of the extensive Running Back catalogue, the extreme level of nostalgia here is matched by the quality of execution.
TracklistA1 Boris Borrison's Trip To Morrisons
B1 Lea Valley
B2 Static