BYRON THE AQUARIUS レコード& CD

Review: Atlanta's leading purveyor of dusty, jazz-flecked deep house pops up on Clone's Jack For Daze offshoot with an expansive mini-album of raw, drum machine-driven workouts that sound like they started life as hardware improvisations (though they may not be). There's plenty of sonic gold to be found amongst the six tracks on show, with our current favourites including the sweat-soaked beat tool 'Kimora (Dub)' - basically jacking drums to get sweaty in the mix - the dubby, squelchy bass-propelled dancefloor psychedelia of 'BLACK (featuring Brandon Banks)', and the ultra-dreamy, late 80s Chicago deep house flex of 'Mr JX 8P'. 'Ancestors', a tougher and darker workout blessed with bags of percussive energy, is also superb.

Review: Atlanta-based Byron The Aquarius has that innately soulful touch to his music which never tires, and after his The New Beginning album on Shall Not Fade he's appearing on Dutch label Heist Recordings with some plush, funking and bumping house gear that's as classic as it is fresh. Just listen to the way he refines the garage house approach on 'Get Up', at once nailing the sound while giving it a sheen that all imitators fail to capture. There's even some uptempo broken beat which edges towards drum & bass on 'Love', but yet again this is Byron doing Byron - accept no imitations!