- San Francisco label Icee Hot has enjoyed a purple patch of late. Their policy of pairing up-and-comers with big hitters seems to raise everyone's game, but on their seventh installment this only exposes the new kid's inexperience. Having released two deep but forgettable EPs for 100% Silk, Bobby Browser has toughened up. He now peddles a raw grooves stitched to soft lead lines, but neither tracks' blend of stompy drums and gossamer pads really grabs the imagination.
"So True" is by some distance the stronger track, but its skippy breakbeat is let down by some aimless synth work. "History"'s limpid deep house style, which stretches out to a mind-boggling nine minutes, is punctured by a choppy spoken word vocal as annoying as wasps at a picnic—remove that and half the length and you'd have a passable mid-set groover.
Icee Hot regular Ghosts On Tape takes a different approach, delivering a sub-led roller that's unwisely peppered with the original's sermon. All of Bobby B's elements are better deployed, but the track is let down by the source material's weakness. This might be why John Talabot goes for a full reconstruction, and in his hands nine minutes fly by in whirling arpeggios and synth stabs. From that peak, the surrounding vista seems flat and featureless.
TracklistA1 History
B1 So True
C1 So True (John Talabot's Espiral Mix)
D1 History (Ghosts On Tape Remix)