- So far the vibe on ava. has been deep house coated in a dreamy, half remembered haze with efforts coming from label boss Damiano von Erckert as well as fellow German Funkycan, who here gets his own EP. Remixers have been chosen wisely, too, with Christopher Rau and Murat Tepeli appearing on 001 and 002 respectively. (This time Workshop boss Lowtec gets the nod.)
It's the remix which opens things, taking the near beat-less ambiance of "Depths" with its soft-focus keys and distant soulful samples and turning it into a chunky, jazzy but flat-footed house groover that decays into a bed of soft, bubbling micro rhythms before emerging out the other side to ride the simple kick-clap combo once again. Funkycan's originals are at least as interesting: "Daze" has busy, panning pads, a mildly acidic twitch and hazy vocal samples all circling round each other àla the non-linear work of Axel Boman, where "CGN-GZT" is unashamedly simple deep house. The latter may not be the freshest track you'll hear all year, but when done as well as this that doesn't really matter.
"Untitled 1" (co-produced with the boss) is assembled with all the looseness and aged finish of a lost Raw Cuts track from MCDE's much loved series. It has more jazzy motifs, soft cowbells, muffled voices and rides atop a rocking back and forth groove that never fails to draw you in. Unassuming deep house with a nominee for the best EP title of the year? Not much to dislike, really.
Tracklist A1 Depths (Lowtec Remix)
A2 Daze
B1 Untitled 1 (Guest produced by Damiano von Erckert)
B2 CGN-GZT
B3 Depths