Matthias Meyer & Patlac - Salt City Skipper EP

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  • Et tu, liebe*detail? On the sublabel of one of Hamburg's finest, two Northern German producers—Matthias Meyer and Patlac—go South down to Mannheim to take lessons in sounds from the deep house contingent currently ruling the DJ charts worldwide. Or so it would seem at least from that rolling drum programming that you'll hear on "Salt City," an ode to Lüneburg—a city near Hamburg—and its long history of salt mining that continued until the early '80s. While the track isn't quite as desolate as the Lüneburg Heath—an area that was devastated to due to the salt trade and is now a nature reserve—it nonetheless evokes a sense of space throughout its eight minutes via the dub bubbles that float to the surface and the see-saw syncopated bassline. By its end, though, those open spaces turn into claustrophobia as synths crash into one another fighting to breathe. It's only in Nick Curly's remix that things sort themselves out. Surely one of the more underrated producers of the year, Curly tosses "Salt City" into the 8bit bounce template and lets the track ride, assured and needing little help. Like the best of his work, it sounds less like a track that Curly built and more like one that he simply came upon—easing elements in and out of a comfortable framework that has existed for ages. "Skipper" is more successful for the duo, not least because it has congas (or percussion that sounds suspiciously like it)—a surefire recipe these days. It glides more easily than "Salt City," an uncluttered riposte to its predecessor. Anytime you're going to bring in moaning strings that hold a chord for what seems like forever doesn't hurt either—something that Meyer and Patlac do for the last-half of the track. If "Salt City" was the slightly fidgety (but talented!) son tamed by Curly, "Skipper" is the self-assured older brother.
  • Tracklist
      A Salt City (Nick Curly Remix) A2 Salt City B1 Skipper
RA