FULLBARR

A couple of recent reviews from UK online Music Mag Data Transmission

Samaan - Detroit Memories

If you’re on the lookout for that track that’ll take you away, like many claim but fail to do, 'Detroit Memories' could be the one. Not just as a reminisce to Motor City glory days, but the way dream-weaving synths prioritise the welfare of your precious headspace...and then comes fierce acid techno telling you to snap out of it. Pot-boiling acid demanding that you man up and jump down from the clouds, it’s a bit cruel from Samaan Vahid really, but you can’t argue with the Belfast up and comer’s believing of angels and demons becoming bedfellows. Excellent transitions from smooth into rough, with Mark Broom’s remix a non-believer in niceties once his throb and thrust has taken over – all of his recollections of The D, sounding more like suppressions trying to take away the pain, are taking the jugular for ransom and never letting up.

About Samaan’s softer side...here it is setting up shop on 'Pixel Planet', not an 8-bit block-buster of moves but post-epiphany acid ambience with old skool hi hats rat-a-tatting and chords hitting the snooze button. A little meaner on the inside but otherwise just as composed in its rubbing of temples is 'Ya Feel Me'. Asking you to jack responsibly upon consumption, it’s the door-hammering bassline that suggests there’s a bad egg at the track’s root, Samaan getting anxious like a firebug on Guy Fawkes Night. An all-round A+ acid exhibition, and you’re glad Samaan is telling both sides of the story, going greedy for heady heights and rumbling rock bottoms in his recollections.



Luke Solomon - Ultrasound

A headache when it comes to classification, 'Ultrasound' is central to four tracks of pleasing pickles. A gentle giant puts farty breakbeat bass plus head-hunting vocal and spooked choristers on one side of a dancefloor scrimmage line, against Pong-playing blips, aquatic percussion and gentle piano nudges on the other. Both sides are likely to swap positions at any time. Much lighter and less chaotic than some of its inventory tells you, an assortment of technological spins, acid rolls, bongo beats, Balearic contact and more are the tip of the mishmash, the Music for Freaks fundamentalist throwing in synth selections whenever they’re on offer in a half-improvised, conversation-interrupting spread around as well. Solomon has his house in order, with a lot of love to give.

A similar cupboard full of contradictions is opened for the '1.2 Horn Version', a jazz-techno smorgasbord beamed up with trumpets trying to fight gravitational pull; 8-bit pulses are called upon, and Solomon again arranges synths when the time is right. Deepness giving off druggy symptoms, it’s off-the wall, punch-packing in places, playful in others.

Swiss big cheese Kalabrese lounges a little more, an outing from Sacha Winkler that you imagine once upon a time had a career peddling sleazy red light jams, but now has a happier outlook on life, the backing singers breathing more easily thanks to the sensible kitsch taking control. Or by another categoriser’s definition, deep electro house. LoSoul is another happy chappy with a grubby lil’ wormer funking though the night, beginning as a tastily taut garage beat – not as dedicated a hoarder as Solomon, but he likes a spot of bric-a-brac nonetheless. Peter Kremeier applies a stinger of a breakdown made to make you jump from your seat, though any chair occupation throughout will be limited.

Labels: Data Transmission, Deep house, luke solomon, samaan, techno