Ly ChenG – Against Us
Bacalao & Sonne – Clap Your Hands
aSg – Whispers
Luis Leon – What They Told You
There are several possible explanations for the fact that deephouse is so hot right now. Purists will tell you that deephouse has always been popular, but even they can’t deny that in the last few years another kind of pop-infused deephouse has gained loads of territory making it one of the most popular electronic music genres around.
Whenever a genre gains commercial interest, a genuine fear is that the quality of the music connected to it will decline due to motives such as greed and money-driven decision making in the process of making tracks. So whenever I receive a fresh pair of tracks, this is the first thing I try to look for: have the artists fallen to the need to succeed instead of giving in to the need to express themselves through their music?
With the ”Fiesta En La Casa”-EP (which stands for ”Party In The House”), I must say I am pleasantly surprised. Luis Leon, instigator of the EP, has already tasted the sweet taste of succes with his anthem ”Love Is A Lie”. But he doesn’t seem to let that stand in the way of delivering a quality mixture.
The EP begins with a more unknown artist: Ly ChenG, an artist I hadn’t heard of until now. He gets down real slow with a warm piano groove in his track ”Against Us”. This one is definitely meant for chilling out, as turning up the speed of this track in order to let it fit in a more uptempo DJ set would only ruin the calmness it portraits. The track displays an appealing mix of warm house with a more ominous synthesizer. It gives the track a strange aura I really dig.
But whereas ”Against Us” is calm, ”Clap Your Hands!” by Bacalao & Sonne is energetic. It relies strongly on it’s heavy synth lead. And even though that’s a style element we see a lot in modern deephouse, it doesn’t get bored to me yet. Though I wonder if time will alter that opinion, as there simply are a lot of tracks to go around with a similar sound to this one.
The third track, ”Whispers” by the Romanian aSg, is an aptly chosen name due to the whispering female vocal that engulfs the track. It too, like ”Against Us”, has an eerie feeling but is more suited for use in the club with it’s steady beat and tension retainer.
The last track, ”What They Told You” by Luis Leon himself, has all the elements one can expect from this Peruvian producer. Tempting vocals, decent bassline and drums, and a melodic element to top it off with. I’m not sure yet whether I like the discofied guitar, I’m more of a melodic fan myself so the high-pitched synthesizer is more to my liking but that’s more of a personal judgement rather than an objective truth. It is in any case hard to deny the fact that it grooves like a train, and ”What They Told You” is therefore likely to be stuck on repeat on many soundsystems both at home as on dancefloors.
In all I can say that there is plenty of diversity to be found on the ”Fiesta En La Casa”-EP. The only thing missing is the connection between the tracks; the current selection strikes me as slightly random. The tracks seem suited for quite different audiences, even though they are all definitely deep house. Checking with Luis Leon made things more clear: the release was simply meant as a platform for each of these tracks. Therefore there is nothing to worry about, and you can just pick the tracks you feel most connected with and enjoy them on their own without having to fear of missing the bigger picture.
