Various Artists / ‘Diary No.1 (Upon.You Records)’
2x CD / MP3
Upon You Records / Released 27th September 2010
Like it or lump it, Berlin has a sound. It’s smooth, it’s flowing, it’s dark, it’s understated… Well, OK, it’s many things to many people. Perhaps because it’s not as easy to put your finger on this particular geographically-inspired production style. Germany boasts 48 hour club events that see punters jump in and out of a night and sleep in between, and they’ve honed the perfect backing track. But it can seem a little uncommitted to fans of Billy Nasty’s driving techno, or Derrick Carter’s booty shaking house.
Thankfully, this nicely packaged little release has enough by way of Deutschland’s ‘gut’ side to engage even the most die-hard big roomers out there. Sure, it’s full of the rolling, padded-drum house and tech that make up ‘the Berlin thing’. But it opts for an addictive Ame vibe, as oppose to mundane minimalism, providing an honest example of the label and accompanying night, while it should appeal to a much broader audience than just the deep and chugging crew alone.
Here we’re presented with two discs- one unmixed, the other mixed- both compiled by Marco Resmann (one half of Luna City Express). New and exclusive cuts from Echonomist, Acumen and The Cheapers feature on the first 13-strong playlist, meaning those looking for heavy plodders to carry into their Serato sets will no doubt be at Word & Sound right now. For home listening, though, we’d probably say the seamless CD wins out, featuring tracks from Upon.You’s three year, 35 EP archive.
It’s pretty much what you imagine, as housey hooks are smeared by filters and breakdowns synth things up. Each time we’re brought back to that perfectly paced beat, a welcome point of reference that smacks of heads down grooving. Once we’re off and rolling, anthems drop in the shape of tracks like the emotive vocal bombshell This Song, and Mathias Mesteno’s European trip to America’s Windy City, Swashbuckler; respectively making the dancefloor in your mind fill with smoke and sweat. Despite the ability to cross reference to our heart’s content there’s no escaping the autobahn feel to this, the only difference here is that it works.
