>I dont have any plans, I just make music for fun< said the latest addition to the Hypercolour roster, Christopher Rau, in a recent interview. The Hamburg house don is not wrong, either, with his deep and non-linear sounds leading the way on labels like Smallville and Pampa. Here teaming up with friend Tilman Tausendfreund, the pair turns in one effort each, plus two collaborative tracks on their Pea Gravel EP.
It’s the lesser-spotted Tausendfreud who takes the lead, suggesting with the brilliance of his ‘Lost Treasure of The Juggernaut’ that he won’t be an unknown for long. It’s kicks and bumps, claps and chatters with analogue authenticity before a rolling bassline and spraying, sinewy melodies are smeared across the face of the whole thing… think Axel Boman or René Breitbarth and you’ll be in the right sort of area. For his part, the ever evolving Rau turns in ‘Last Time Was So Good’ - a hurried house jam that skates along through plenty of harmonic chord stabs, shiny tones, bumping beats and vivacious claps. It’s lively, loose and lovely… ‘Pea Gravel’ sees the confreres work together on a deeper tip. There are classic house claps but with contemporary work on the keys, a muddied and busied bassline and generally an air of late night cool to the whole thing that speaks of real production prowess. Closer ‘Dtrh’ initially sounds like it’s coming from the room next door for the way its muffled melodies, soft edged beats and murky, barely audible vocal appear from behind a muted veil. It’s a tumbling, dubby and broken beat cut that seems buoyed with optimism. Like Rau says, this is house music imbued with a sense of fun, but not to the detriment of genuine invention.