Friday 31 August 2012

Raw & Darren Clarke – Jazz EP

Raw & Darren Clarke Jazz EP Them On The Hill
Now then, anyone fancy guessing what this one might sound like? Yeah, you got it… deep, sultry, jazzy house is the order of the day on this three-tracker from new-ish (this is number six from them) Sheffield label Them On The Hill.

Lead track Digital Jazz Fix, from Raw, comes in two mixes. The Original is pretty self-explanatory – think the housier end of the Compost catalogue or the jazz-dance sessions at Southport, if you need a signpost – while the NZ Dub from Kiwi collaborator Darren Clarke is, er, a drummier, dubbier take on the same, not much else I can say, with brushed snares a-gogo.

Rounding out the EP is Free Form from Clarke, a more straight-up deep house cut that to these ears suggests late 90s French deep house labels like Defender and Brique Rouge may feature prominently in Mr Clarke's collection, and that features some old jazz dude reminiscing as a vocal.

It's all very easy on the ears all round, really. But not, I hasten to add, in a lame-ass, coffee table kinda way! It's just… groovy, daddio.

Out: This week

About: Although Them On The Hill is a new label, the crew behind it are no newcomers to the game. They started out as a party collective in Sheffield in 1993 and Raw himself you might remember from his work as Digital Boogie (with Callum Wordsworth) on DiY Discs, or as Vibe, Inc (with Groove Assassin) on Black Vinyl, Transport, 4th Floor and Glasgow Underground.

Anyway, you can find Them On The Hill at their own website or on Soundcloud. Nice…

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