- New York-based Plan B Recordings would like you to think they're a deep house label, but I'm not sure if you can trust them on that. As their second sampler EP shows, the "deep" in this collective's deep house seems to be sourced from some pitch black hole of depravity instead of the usual soulful touchstones of their East Coast brethren. Granted, sometimes that's for the better: This is a weird, weird EP, and weird is never going to be boring.
Marshallito's remix of DJ Spider's "Flight of the Vultures" starts off proceedings in suitably occult style, tribal drums beating in a darkened rainforest. The track sweats humid, claustrophobic tones; but more concerning is the disembodied voice that ghosts through the track in lieu of proper chords. Courage's "Christine" sounds as if it were made on a half-functioning computer from the late '80s, while Dakini9's "Dust & Memories" is a little like an alternate dimension Fred P as clipped strings beam in periodically and a fading saxophone spews dust everywhere. The EP ends with its most conflicting track, Amir Alexander's "Deep & Raw." What starts out at as a somewhat normal house jam soon reveals its vocal sample to be two people fucking. It almost works, but it's hard not to be distracted by the obvious gimmick, even if the violent synth contortions around it are an appropriate addition.
An EP that tests the depth of deep house's fetishization of aged analogue sounds, it's sometimes difficult to decide whether these are idiot savant masterpieces or simply someone's amateur attempt at house music. Either way, it's definitely not boring.
Tracklist A1 DJ Spider - Flight of the Vulture (Marshallito remix)
A2 Courage - Christine
B1 Dakini9 - Dust & Memories
B2 Amir Alexander - Deep & Raw!