Page 63 - Zone Magazine Issue 021

\\ TUNES
VA - OFF Sonar Sampler 2018 [Roush Label]
tech-house
Founded by Hector Couto back in 2013, Roush is ready to enjoy it’s biggest year to date, celebrating it’s fifth anniversary in style having already welcomed notable names such as Steve Lawler, DJ W!ld, Tuccillo and Phil Weeks to the label.
The Tenerife based imprint really has been going from strength to strength of late and to coincide with Barcelona’s infamous OFF week and the Sonar Festival they are releasing this thirteen track sampler on June 11th with label favourite Javi Bora and kicking things off alongside Piem with their co-production ‘King Of Vila’ which is a deep cut with an interesting dubby feel to it and prominent electro drums and accuntated claps.
That is followed by rising talent Jairo Deili’s ‘Body Pi’ which is a tech houser with clever vocal samples and a swung backbeat with an almost hip house feel. Next up is co-production by FreedomB and Space Jump Salute called ‘All Night Tonight’ which is an uptempo affair with a galloping bassline, male and female vocal samples, a great acidic lead line and long snare rolls which build the tension nicely.
There is no let up in the quality as we are treated to a label debut by Gav Whitehouse who lays down chunky kicks and spiraling lead lines for his track ‘They're Coming” which is followed by Drastic Duo’s ‘In The House’ which has a chunky natural bass sound and Taty Munoz’s ‘Alteration’ which is all about the chunky drums and female vocal samples.
Things get funky again with Manu Gonzalez’s ‘Mind Games’ which introduces infectious vocals amongst nostalgic house tones to reveal a production that’s set to become a favourite of many in the months to come, whilst Picca & Mars opt for skipping hats woven amongst driving bass laden grooves.
The five tracks that close out this fine 13 tracker are by Gerbert Vos who unveils the dark and kinetic ‘Give It’, Gorkiz & Killed Kassette add funky bass, tizzy percussion with clever sampling about the routes of techno to create ‘Sol Ring’ and Luigi Rocca & Anis Hachemi combine to drop the thunderous ‘Rawtomation’. Finally Tuffdub & Aday Chinea’s ‘Da Menace’ combines booming claps and stuttered vocal samples, before Makanan & Iva Dive punctuate the package with the bright and bumping ‘Mondadito’.
In fact this thirteen track sampler contains some of the best and most experimental tech house that I have heard for a while which is saying a lot!
The tracks are pretty raw but that is their unique selling point and I am sure that this sampler will act as an excellent ambassador of sorts for the Roush Label over the coming months and I hope to hear from the featured artists soon as they are not short on talent to say the least!
Connect: https://soundcloud.com/roush-label Words by Danny Slade
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