Various Artists – Sol Asylum 06 – (Sol Asylum)

Julie Marghilano and her Sol Asylum crew have been busy enthralling the underground for some time now, principally through their knack for uncompromising and quality-strewn beats. Always effective cuts, Sol Asylum’s releases always seem to leave a marked impression, regardless of the sub-genre they’re lumped into. Either way, it’s a way of working that’s paid dividends thus far, and does so once more on the imprint’s sixth release.

This one is a family affair once more, as the label welcomes back some of the key players in their story to date. Opening up we have the considered sounds of OdD, who live up to their moniker with an introspective and somewhat esoteric take on their own track, ‘Broken Spell’. That said, there’s still more than enough going on here to charm even the most ardent and particular house-head.

Marghilano is up next with ‘Dragon Drops’, a track which in may ways represents a shift in tone and sound for the producer. Either way, her experiment comes off in droves, and much like OdD’s track, it demands respect for both its approach and the production nous with which it was constructed. Seeing us out is Miss Jools, who pipes up with ‘Calima’. Again, the emphasis here is on otherworldly sounds, but this is most definitely the Jools of Sol Asylum on show rather than the Jools of Mobilee. Affiliations aside, it’s a warm, hazy track that’ll leave the listener harking for Balearic planes this winter. And what’s not to like about that?

5 out of 5

Reviewed by Ian Fleming