English producer and DJ Neville Watson will release his debut album on Dutch label Crème Organization in May 2013. Entitled Songs To Elevate Pure Hearts, it sees Watson explore similar ground to that of the EPs he has released on labels like Teng and Clone Jack For Daze dating back a whole decade. Watson, who also set up Windsor’s much loved Mighty Atom record store and label, has become synonymous with re-interpreting classic Chicago house sounds in his own heavily analogue way. His productions often deal in an authentic rawness and roughness, whilst as a live specialist he has been much in demand in recent times thanks to boundary nudging outings at clubs around Europe with Bulgarian partner in Crime, KiNK. The album offers eleven tracks, kicking off with the serene ‘Dark Star’ before immediately getting fractious with the twisted lines and crisp percussion of the title track. Though containing plenty of material for the dancefloor, so too is this a carefully programmed trip that takes you up as well as down, with the likes of ‘The Girl From Kowloon Tong’ exploring beat-less, melodically intoxicating territory between harder hitting joints like the widescreen, dubby techno of ‘Against The Tide’ and controlled, machine frenzy of ‘Everything I Know About House (I Learnt On Facebook)’. Tracks like ‘Axiomatic’ prove Watson as adept at crafting occult moods and unusual feelings as he is the more physical beats and classicist stylings of the ode to real house music that is ‘Son of House’. Taking you up, down, backwards and forwards through time and space, ‘Songs To Elevate Pure Hearts’ does exactly what the title suggests, no matter how pure your heart.

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