Label
SENSATEFOCUS10/65416
- Famed sex researchers Masters and Johnson sought to de-emphasize the orgasm as the critical element in sex, developing methods to help individuals embrace sex as a more varied sensory experience. They called this Sensate Focus, which is also what experimental powerhouse Editions Mego is calling its new house music offshoot. No word on who's behind the label's first release—number 10 in the catalog number aside, this is Sensate Focus's debut—but they've crafted a record that picks up the thread of artists like like Sasu Ripatti (as Luomo) and Herbert who saw house not just as body music but as a legitimate forum for twists and turns both compositional and intellectual. And that's where the "sensate focus" comes in: by shifting house's locus of power from the butt to the brain (without, of course, denying us our bodily pleasures), he/she/whoever has crafted some of the richest dance music of the moment.
It's also, to be a bit less sophisticated with the Masters and Johnson reference, kind of a bedroom record, with gloriously humid chords and steady thrust building to one final rippling moment on the B-side. The record opens with a soft moan, spurring on extended rhythmic tickling. At a moment of truth, the 4/4 beat eventually breaks down, but with a playful smirk, it's picked back up in 7/8, a trick sure to make your toes curl (and give unrehearsed DJs a panic attack). After the record is flipped, the stakes run higher: you can almost hear the sweat dripping off its climbing melody, with a digital sizzle as it hits the floor. Nearing the runout, the key modulates and the beat stutters slightly, signaling the finish of a house excursion as likely to raise your heart rate as it is your IQ.
TracklistA1 Track 1
A2 Track 2
B1 Track 3
B2 Track 4