You know those records that feel like you’ve heard them before but nevertheless are brilliant? Dance music has a habit of slipping into familiar tropes, hoover led techno, gargling acid and soaring breakdowns all regurgitated themes that every year are repeated with varying degrees of success. Some are absolutely awful and need eradicating from popular society, making you genuinely fearful for the future of music. This isn’t one of those.
‘The Warehouse’ starts off innocuously enough, waiting a full minute before its signature chords punctuate the atmosphere. You know the ones, the stabs that make you think of Inner City’s evergreen ‘Good Life’ and can’t help make you grin even though you’ve heard them or something similar a gazillion times before. It’s a fine line between a rip off and a homage but Niguel straddles it here with ease, crafting a brilliantly subtle undercurrent to it (the percussion at the end is a classy flourish).
Michel De Hey gets to grips with with the remix alongside Taras van De Voorde, obviously so enamoured with the original he saw fit to utilise it spearhead the relaunch of his Hey! imprints. He cranks up the atmosphere and adds much more energy and drama in his rework, gifting the groove more immediacy as well as a piano which only heightens the nostalgia. The languid genius of the original wins the battle for me, but in all honesty you really are spoilt for choice here. Michel’s self titled record label is back with a bang, and expect to hear a lot about Eddie Niguel in the future.
5 out of 5
Reviewed by Jimmy Coultas
