- After debuting on Hakim Murphy's Machining Dreams label, Murphy's partnership with fellow Chicago beatsmith Ike Release, Innerspace Halflife, gets down to business with a 10-inch for MOS Deep. And I certainly don't use "business" lightly: on "Wind," Murphy and the man born Ike Velez provide each and every classic drum machine hit you need to get moving, and not one more. Much of the track feels a little boilerplate—the upper-register 303 melody feels a bit too familiar, as does the cloudy half-time synth line up top—but the way the bassline stutters on its lowest note amidst a cavalcade of 808 claps is likely to set you wiggling regardless.
Ike Release goes solo on the flip, and while "Phazzled" is more novel, it's a bit less successful. Velez's production tricks are fancier when he's sitting stag at the controls—I can't quite make out the origin of that filtered, ultra-shifty sheet of noise the whole track is coated in—but the mix is a bit of a mess: his dynamic deep house melody can't help but be squashed beneath the brash, bombastically arranged drums.
Tracklist A Innerspace Halflife - Wind
B Ike Release - Phazzled