- After a pair of EPs on Washington, D.C.'s Future Times label, Protect-U (Aaron Leitko and Ft co-founder Mike Petillo) hop the Atlantic for a spot on Piers Harrison and Chris Galloway's Vibrations imprint. If you've heard their previous records, you'll know what they're up to here: graceful, resolutely analog house and techno in the vein of Legowelt or Omar-S or the L.I.E.S. label, by turns prickly, bleepy and straight-up dreamy.
"Wild Drift" begins with a bouncy 808 pattern and pert arpeggios before blowing wide open beneath cascading fifths; drums shudder, synths swirl. "Bright After Dark" is a lo-fi, slo-mo drum track that eventually sprouts an eerie halo of shimmering, dissonant pads; similarly paced, "Ultra (Basic Mix)" brings together chiming chords and dubby congas. They're all great, but none of them come close to the understated beauty of "Slow Ultra," a sweet, plucky little deep house lullaby that carries the faintest echo of LCD Soundsystem's "Someone Great."
TracklistA1 Wild Drift
A2 Ultra (Basic Mix)
B1 Slow Ultra
B2 Bright After Dark