The debut of Stockholm’s Henrik Berqvist is, simply put, no-nonsense house music. And it also allows me to wheel out that much underused adjective in contemporary electronic music: ‘wintery’ (a welcome change from our usual partiality to all things ‘summery’).
The a-side is a tender, multi-layered piece of shuffling house: a delicate violin loop instils an otherworldly gleam that’s grounded by ragged percussion and a bottom-heavy beat.
But it is the simpler of the two sides that emerges as the hero of the day: ‘Spin’ is testament to the fact that it doesn’t matter how repetitious a track is when the groove is this good. As stark and tatty as winter branches, a rattle of rickety percussion forms the backbone, underscored by a boulder of sturdy bass.
‘Spin’ in particular is a bouncy, bristling bomb and a great sign of things to come from newcomer Henrik Berqvist – a great find by the Aniara Recordings.
Aniara Recordings | Released: February
