“Every producers dream is to one day complete and release a full length album. After a string of well received 12inch singles on my own label, Emphasis Recordings, and most recently, on labels like Aesthetic Audio, Machining Dreams, Syncrophone, and Dolly, I thought now is the time to start realizing that dream of the full length album.”
Julius Steinhoff comes up with his second solo 12inch on Smallville “So Glad”. Steinhoffs soloworks strike even more voluptuary with slightly rapturous pleasure. ‘So Glad’ makes slick moves with sparse chords and a frisky machine beat revolving limber square bass. ‘Slow Movement’ slips down a gear into robust Chicago jack mode and ‘All Of A Sudden’ gets all minimal and sinuous next to the plush late night swerve of ‘Speak No Evil’.
Hamburg’s Smallville who now are about to release Christopher Rau’s second album “Two”. Well known for his minimalistic choice of ingredients Christoper Rau somehow frees himself of any straight format. Songs full of sweetness, a glimpse of soul here, a detroit electro influence there, broken beats, breaks that are no breaks, sexyness and funk and fun. The City of Christopher Rau’s music turns into a Universe. A world that believes in that particular moment when a minute turns into life. Where you will dive through the surface of beat, bass and sample – something underneath grows to the unreachable. As you reach that overwhelming feeling, the night could last forever. After the essentials of House Music have been invented some 25 years ago, Christopher Rau proves again how far we still can go searching for the perfectly wonderful track.
STL is back on Smallville with a full EP, featuring three outstanding tracks. Stefan Laubner is the undisputed master of the left of centre house groove and on “Where Have You Gone”, he proves his worth yet again. Spacey, somewhat mysterious melodies float through the arrangement, appearing gradually over Laubner’s trademark doubled up, scuffled beats. He adopts a similar approach with “Inverted Reality”. There, grinding sounds and a heavy bass make the off beats sound more deranged and out there. However, it’s with “Your Turn” that he really impresses. The track marks a departure of sorts for Laubner, with a dubby, snaking bassline at its centre, and the metallic drums and a linear rhythm marking out the German producer’s most techno focused release to date.
Roaming are Christopher Rau and Moomin as a Team. “Believe In Reflecting” is a result of a spontaneous jam-session in Berlin, without the intention to start a new project. Smallville co-owners Smallpeople aka Dionne & Julius Steinhoff step in with a trippy remix on B1.
Smallville reach out to Manchester, welcoming Meandyou residents Juniper and Arnaldo into the fold with the excellent four tracker We Met In Manchester. “Quiet Moon” sets the tone, a blissful arrangement that gently coaxes itself into action and swerves delightfully when in full rhythmic flight. In contrast “Selenic” is a dreamier proposition with swirling melodic textures lying deep in the mix as Mumberson and Holt shift the rhythms in and out of focus. Arnaldo is in similarly reflective fashion with “A Song Name Of One Word” which momentarily pauses on some wonderfully chiming chords before a voice appears from the depths to drive the track on.
Just von Ahlefeld and Julius Steinhoff aka Smallpeople with a double pack full of forward thinking deeper house experiments. From functional to crazy wild and weird… which is a perfect combination for an 8 tack album. The debut album of these two young lads with baseball hats not only honours and delves into a sound that already peaked some fifteen years ago, it also hones and elevates it, without everfalling into the Reynoldsmania trap or being oldgold retold.
Smallville Buddies Jacques Bon and Christopher Rau are finally back as a team to present two jams of rough-but-sweet house music. Together as Bon & Rau, they travel along the blurry side of the moon.
Moomin is back with another adventure into charming house music. Like a fountain of sweetness the works of Smallville’s wunderkind are spreading all over the world.
Lovely deep house tracks with old schoolish metalic basslines and good vibes. It is time for the season of real deepness again. Smallpeople come along with another joint in splendid House Music to welcome wintertime. Dionne and Julius Steinhoff had an enormous success with their Meadows EP together with Christopher Rau on Smallville in last year’s autumn.
Sebastian Genz aka Moomin drops a teaser for his forthcoming album on Smallville Records. “Sweet Sweet” introduces the tenderness of Moomin’s deep diving sound and is supported by a Oskar Offermann remix.
“Twentyfour Ways” presents four sunset tracks by Benjamin Brunn, Christopher Rau and Smallpeople and special guests C-Beams aka Break SL & Sandrow Mitzschke from Dresden.
Dionne returns to Smallville for a sweet Deep House session. He firstly seduces with the snugly slotted square bass and blue pads of the title track before ushering in the opulent atmospheres and elegant rhythms of ‘What You Are’, and finishing on the martian jazz melodies of ‘Capsule’.
Amsterdam’s duo Quince and Benny Rodrigues evolve an outstanding synthesis of a classic Detroit Techno Vibe and newest sound technology. With a bass blowing beast turning into deep space the A Side is created for dancefloor’s magic at its best. Based on strings, chords and 303 Sweet Potatoes on the B Side is a deeply kicking Detroit Electro tune.
The Hipodrome Of Music 