- For my money, Move D is one of the most exhilarating producers around. In compatriot Benjamin Brunn, he found a fascinating contemporary, and their collaboration has already yielded one of this year's best albums, Songs from the Beehive. The way that album effortlessly sparkles and stirs with emotional conviction and confidence has been a revelation, a revisiting of the abyss-deep techno that labels like Plastic City and Force Inc. used to revel in a decade ago.
By his lonesome, Move D ploughs a much purer field of chord-driven, spacious deep house music, and he usually does so with gob smacking results. 2008's Between Us EP proved once again that his sound is multi-faceted; there was the pulsing, organic dub sound that has affiliated him with the Modern Love crew and a jazzier, dare I say, more disco sound that gloriously recalled vintage Alton Miller. Move D's new EP reveals yet another side to this protean producer: It's a more loop orientated, tech house direction that under any other producer would be lost in the Beatport vortex, but because of Move D's meticulous yet warm approach to his craft, sounds remarkably fresh.
"Cube" is the more "track"-driven of the two pieces that comprise this EP. It's dusky tech-house, built from spluttering percussion, enveloping bass and gentle dubby key stabs that seep further into your frontal lobe as things progress. It's superb in its simplicity and recalls what's great about vocal-less deep house; anticipation and tension that's never resolved. "Heidelberg Gals" is a gorgeous number that wouldn't sound out of place in a Losoul or Isolée set, if they were in a melancholic mood. A very slight disco jerk, crisp electro-like bassline and cut-up vocal snippets are offset by washes and stabs of emotive analogue synths. Move D ambitiously shoots for deep house grandeur here, with a slow build toward a rinsed-out breakdown, that once again builds relentlessly but gives little resolve.
TracklistA Cube
B Heidelberg Gals