Chris Stussy and his Up The Stuss imprint are firing on all cylinders at present and no denying. After releases from top tech housers such as Janaret, DJOKO, S.A.M. and of course the man himself the seventh release is an extended journey from Locklead.
With his most recent output including the likes of Vatos Locos, Dungeon Meat and further back Rawax, Pleasurezone as well as a slew of performances that are too numerous to mention. The Dutchmans’ ‘Square One’ LP is a great snapshot of where part of his sound lies, so read on to join Locklead in his journey around the sun.
Where better to start than right at the beginning and A1 ‘Light Of Day’ signals a real sign of intent. Such is the style of Up The Stuss this side of Locklead fits right in. No nonsense deep house music with a crisp techy side to it is the featured sound but there is more than that on offer. Pumping basslines and punchy drums is one thing but being able to do so much with so little is an art form and Locklead is as deft as they come. Breaking up the peak time house sounds is a nicely crafted vocal and a tidy rising and falling pad and string combo. Locklead was clearly in the zone when he crafted this, ‘Light of Day’ is a track that just came naturally, I think the whole track took me a few hours including recording the vocal. I made this track with an intimate dark club setting in mind.”
Moving on through the rest of the first disc and ‘Bumping Headz’ opts for more classic tech house chords and stabs all while the snappy drums and subtle bassline do their trick. Over on B1 and ‘Hunting’ is a far more vibey affair, tight grooves punctuating nicely over a garagey motif. ‘Plants and Astronauts’ finishes off disc 1 and it again shifts sonic attention elsewhere and with a delve into spacey modularism there is again something for most house DJ’s on this release.
This is even more so the case with ‘A Gloomy Morning In The Red Box’ where shimmering synths slide above grinding bassliens and vocoded vocals. ‘Liberte’ on C2 hits hard with straight up vibes and the dreamy French vocal just adds to the dreaminess. Flipping over for the final time ‘Dillusions’ see’s Locklead back in energetic mode and for one of the LP highlights. Skipping snares and quality synth programming drive this track towards the business end of the release. Closing out is the sublime ‘Lac De Marcenay’ and the lush elements of the track coupled with the pink coloured vinyl and cloudy blue sky all combine to top off what is an excellent LP with many shades of house covering a multitude of angles.
UTS07 is now available to pre-order now from deejay.de.
More info on Locklead
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More info on Up The Stuss
Facebook | Resident Advisor | SoundCloud | Discogs
