- Big-room—no, huge-room—hip-house.
- On a mix full of hands-in-the-air moments, one of the most memorable in Sally Caithness's RA Podcast was the debut of "Downtown." No matter where you put this track, it'll make an impression. The bassline is big enough to rearrange air molecules, with a smattering of brash b-boy vocal snippets to match. Caithness saved it for the second half of the mix, just as she was starting to crank the energy for the home stretch. The frog-like vocal—"Do you want to dance?"—interrupts the near-religious fervor of X-Connection's 1995 stargazing techno with some booty-shaking badness. These two tracks provide a nearly combustible juxtaposition of club theology. On one side, the spiritual. On the other, the deviant. Now the second Big Saldo's Chunker EP includes the full version of "Downtown," plus two other slices of downright dirty hip-house made to turn the party out.
Caithness is part of a new(er) school of UK and Irish DJs who go for the proverbial jugular with big, rolling tunes. Although Caithness has been a Berlin resident for the past seven years, you can still hear her Belfast roots and Dundee apprenticeship in the fiery way she mixes (what she calls "vocal-heavy chop and change") and her productions. And what sets Caithness apart from peers like Big Miz or Cromby is her unadulterated love of hip-house. While most contemporary hip-house leans into smokier, stoned territory, as Caithness showcased on her mini-mix for Annie Mac, the genre has always been filled with a unique feeling of joy. The EP highlight, "Give It To Me" is like a Tyree Cooper track with the vocals swapped out for a sleazy sax line.
All three tracks on this record feel destined for some of the world's biggest festival stages for summers to come. But as big-room as they are, they're never generic thanks to the little flourishes Caithness throws in. Just check that tech house bassline on "Nasty" or the squiggly detuned synth on "Downtown." This is exactly what Caithness means by a "chunker"—large and brassy, yes, but also forged with her nuanced attention to detail.
Tracklist01. Give It To Me
02. Downtown
03. Nasty