- Emphasis and experimentation in rhythm and percussion has been an important feature of the recent deep house resurgence and, at its best, this has given way to genuinely interesting tunes with a tribal-esque groove. At its worst, though, you often get uninspired and dry congas patterns over simple bass lines in mundane attempts at deepness. Guillaume & The Coutu Dumonts, thankfully, has stayed on the former side for the most part with his rhythmically-centred house numbers on Raum, Circus Company and Oslo throughout 2008.
Guillaume, who studied percussion in college, stated in a recent interview with Slices DVD magazine that—unsurprisingly—for him "rhythm is not more or less important than melody or harmonic progression." On this Oslo release, importance is indeed given to the rhythm, with tonal percussive elements providing the only sense of melody in two infectiously groovy house numbers.
My poor French led me to a Google translation of the title of this release, which reveals it to have something to do with an Indian summer. Both tracks here have a summery lightness to them, with a sound palette that sounds like it might have derived from India, or at least somewhere far south of Guillaume's former Montreal home. "Halleluyah Yeah" features a simple two note bass pattern, a Jew's harp riff and a steady bass drum and snare combo around which all manners of percussive hits are woven. The groove builds throughout the track as the riff transforms itself in conjunction with the drum hits that effortlessly swirl back and forth. Over the persistence of the simplistic low-end, the track builds up an incredibly catchy groove and its ten-minute duration seems to fly by.
On "Le Tigre" identifying the origin of all the rhythmical elements is even trickier, but here the melody is provided by what sounds like a clay pot drum and other African-sounding percussion, as shakers swivel around the simple refrain. Again these ingredients are layered against the backdrop of a minimal bassline, and the track trots along building up a nice and groovy momentum.
The simple melodies coupled with the evolving and morphing percussion give both tunes an improvisational feel. More importantly, the melodic aspect breathes some fun into the proceedings—and raises them above a lot of contemporary deep house jams, which often take themselves too seriously in their attempt to ape their stateside influences.
Tracklist A Halleluyah Yeah
B Le Tigre