Tony Barbato - Marula EP

TIWWD is a bit poorly, so not gonna be doing loads tonight, but we can find time I think to discuss this latest from UK label Favouritizm. It's the handiwork of Italian producer Tony Barbato, who's cropped up on Favouritizm before, and takes its name from Marula Beach, a club in Follonica where he's been resident since 2005.

First up is Shaka, a pleasingly non-frenzied deep/tech house cut with plenty of space in the production for the slightly old skool synths to shine. Feel It comes next, a more uptempo and more traditional vocal number, while bringing the EP to a close is Falling, which is more uptempo again but this time in a techier vein, with busy shuffling percussion, a fat walking b-line tucked away quite subtly in the mix and very distinctive, Arabic-sounding strings.

The latter stands out for me for its sheer not-sounding-like-anything-else-ness, but it's solid stuff all round, and Shaka's got some wicked drops, it has to be said.

Out: This week

About: You can find Favouritizm here. I'm off to bed with some Vit C now.