Greg Stainer - Sax Is Back EP

Neither Mr Stainer nor Seamless Black Label are any strangers to this blog, so I'll just quickly say that this is of the high calibre we've come to expect.

In particular, Stainer seems to have the knack of neatly straddling the commercial/cool divide, with his brand of house being accessible enough for wide appeal, yet credible enough to appeal also to the cognoscenti. So here, Peek A Boo is Berlin-y but upbeat and musical, while lead cut Sax Is Back is a deep house dancefloor workout that any head worth his or her salt will recognise as borrowing its main hook from Surface's 1983 Salsoul cut Falling In Love (which, if you think you don't know it, was later the basis for Cloud 9's garage classic Do You Want Me), with added lashings of the eponymous woodwind instrument thrown in before it all goes off into a massive percussion-fest. But in a good way.

I'm not really convinced by the other track, End Of Drop. It comes in two mixes but both are too close to Ibiza-style trancey-pants house for my liking (though the Basin Dub is less so, to be fair). But this is still worth picking up for the first two.

Out: This week

About: Another goodie from Seamless Black Label, then. Website here, and if you hear the name 'Seamless' and think, 'Hmm, that's a tad too commercial for me', then do just remember that Seamless Black Label is where they put the deeper/more underground/better stuff!