An unlikely marriage, you might think, but then Defected has been moving into a more techy area for some time now, so getting Loco Dice to oversee their latest ‘In The House’ release is a sound move. What’s nice, too, is that Simon Dunmore has given him as much leeway as he needs to select the tracks he wants, so it’s a natural selection rather than a label-driven one. The first mix is deep and quite boomy at the start, but then it gets progressively funkier, and EDA pulls up some trees with the elastic bass line of ‘Love Worn’, which segues nicely into Robert Dietz’s smooth and soulful ‘Common’. Gradually the tempo picks up and the tracks become more drawn out and minimal, with more emphasis on bare rhythm and crisp beats, culminating in Nathan Barato’s call to arms ‘Give It To You’. The second mix starts off brilliantly, with the shimmer of Call me ES’s ‘Short Circuit’ giving way to Glimpse’s ‘True South’, while later Diplo’s ‘Express Yourself’ adds a bit of his own particular brand of madness. The mix then broadens out, with a more open approach, and David Alvarado’s ‘Ysleta’, Harvard Bass’ ‘Cream’ and Marcel Dettmann’s ‘Ellipse’ are beautifully blended together before a strong run to the finish. This is best house compilation Defected have done for a long time, and it’s one to come back to again and again. Full marks!
5 out of 5
Reviewed by Ben Hogwood
