House Is A Feeling

17. Petre Inspirescu-La Creme Bonjour (Cadenza)

It’s hard to pick a single track off this EP for this chart. Sure, the tracks may not be incendiary on the dancefloor but the sounds used have a real freshness about them, with that feeling that somebody is doing something new, a feeling that’s rarely as marked as on “Tips”. I guess “La Creme Bonjour” is my favourite track on “Tips”, that wonky housey swing just grabs you, a bit like Lil Louis if he was born in a cold and grey Eastern Europe.

16. Saint Germain-Rose Rouge (Tak-Su Remix Rhadoo Edit) (White)

And another Romanian. Well, possibly. Nobody really knows who did this and most of you are probably sick of wondering. Is the version Luciano is playing better than the below version? Should that be in this chart instead? Perhaps, but the only version that leaked is still a damn fine reworking of Saint Germain’s classic. This is deep and locomotive with that lurching early morning feeling that so often seems more easy to love than the peaktime, unless that’s just me getting old (that can’t be it, it’s the records that are changing, not me!)

15. 2000 and One-Work (Podium)

What can you say about this one? Simplicity all the way, drops that are predictable enough to suck you in and too unpredictable to be routine, every element in the right place and cut down to size, a perfect record. They’ll still be making this sort of shit in 2045, and I say that purely to illustrate the sort of record this is, not to suggest that makes the record more or less interesting or worthy. It seems 2007 was a great year for 2000 and One.

14. Sascha Dive-Deep In Rhythm (Deepvibes)

This one is impeccable really, incredibly simple with diamond hard production. Nothing superfluous, no frills, just clean house sounds and a simple thumping rhythm. It’s a record that’s such a triumph of minimalism (not minimal) that it’s incredibly hard to write about it.

People, including myself, have spoken about the return to deep house in the minimal scene but the talk can make it seem kind of contrived sometimes. If there wasn’t a lot of good deep house around people wouldn’t be playing it. If there hadn’t been a lot of music that was very far from deep house around before that then maybe you wouldn’t have so many Germans and Europeans embracing it and even making it (or their own takes on it.)

I don’t agree though that 2007 was characterised by some form of deep house replacing “minimal” or any such thing. Although house coming back was a big deal this year it seems to have happily become another option on the menu in the clubs around Europe, with a good impetus. As far as I can see (and living in Dublin, I could be very wrong) the return of house is a lot broader and more complex than everyone copying Innervisions. By that I mean that I think of Oslo and Ralph Sliwinski and 2000 and One and the Romanians as some sort of step back towards house music, one that nobody really predicted.

I guess in summary I’d say that for me minimal artists meeting house half way has been more interesting than unabashed retroism, even if there are some great retro tracks around too.

[More chart soon.]