Happy & Housey

Around these parts, any mention of Surkin immediately brings to mind a certain sound: filtered disco-house, drenched in old school 90′s flavourings. A style afloat with elated melodies, soaring piano chords and retro vocals, often punctuated by ravey ghetto bass. But I remember Surkin bursting onto the dirty electro scene back in 2006 (at the peak of the maximal, noisy electro explosion) with an altogether different sound – glitchy-beyond-belief and nastier, boisterous beats. At the time, Surkin’s remixes could be more alikened to the eletro-tech thumpers of Boy Noize, and was often lumped with the Ed Banger crew. After his remixes of Boys Noize and Teki Latex, Surkin steered his sound towards his more distincitve, now-renowned brand of 90′s influenced house, but retained his trademark glitched, stuttery momentum.

22 year old Surkin – thanks to his fresh-faced looks, rumours are abound that he’s barely of drinking age – is one of the most exciting producers at the moment , admist an impressive line-up of Institubes’ artists. I recently saw Surkin smash Leeds’ The Faversham with a refreshing set that included a tracklist that encompassed modern house classics from Puzique to his very own High Powered Boys (Surkin and Bobmo’s side-project).
Here Surkin remixes The Juan Maclean, a tasty combination. Ravey house stabs and piano chords pulse and rise to a looping of Nancy Whang’s blissful vocal refrain. Listen to this on repeat: it’s a real grower.

The Juan Maclean’s album ‘The Future Will Come’ is due for release this month on DFA. And while it’s received mixed reviews, there’s no denying ‘Happy House’ was one of the suprise house anthems of last year. It beautifully samples Dubtribe SoundSystem, and again we have DFA’s enchanting Nancy Whang on vocals. For a more recent top Juan Maclean production check out their remix of this month’s ‘I Have A Vision’ by legendary Roy Davis Jr.
While on the topic of upbeat house, you may remember Barcelona’s Sidechains, who featured on YCCMPelski last year (click here), with his funky vein of melodic, synth-led house – he’s another producer gleefully reviving the early house sound. Sidechains can well-and-truly wield those diva-house-vocal samples and bouncy chords like the old skoolers. Delicious:

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