- There's old-school imitation and then there's Lone. Perhaps it's his close proximity to the UK Funky scene that allows him to instil a welcome freshness and candour into records that, at first glance, could have been released 20 years ago. Or perhaps he's just massaging our aural g-spots with outrageously catchy hooks that duplicitously forbid any criticism of reactionary music making. However he's doing it, Matt Cutler is rightly one of the year's most sought-after artists, and Once in a While his most sought-after release.
Pored over ever since Kode 9 placed it at the head of his DJ-Kicks table six months ago, it's finally here with bells on it, like a "Coma Cat" for the rave generation. The melody's a shower-solo success to be sure, but equal measures of frenzy can be drawn from Cutler's rampageous switches from broken beats to straight with added punch on the ones and twos as he does so. It's a device he exploits further in "Raptured," which, with a rattletrap lead line that Patrick Adams might have written had he been a raver, will have you momentarily questioning which is really the choice here ("Once in a While," but it's closer than expected.)
The remixes seem superfluous. The original material is strong enough not to need bolster, and neither the soca beat of Sinden nor the sleep house of Midland takes it in a direction that's as desirable as Lone's retroasis.
Tracklist A1 Once In A While
A2 Raptured
B1 Once In A While (Sinden Remix)
B2 Once In A While (Midland Remix)