Markus Eden – Deep Signatures EP

Despite the title of this EP, here we find deep/tech house stalwarts Tokyo Red perhaps venturing into slightly more overtly techified territory, at least on two of the three cuts.

For me, it's all about the lead track, Something I Feel. This works the familar Cuba Gooding-via-Acen sample, heavily treated, atop sparse, minimal deep house beats, the occasional disco synth stab and, most importantly, a phat, squelchy b-line that's got da funk in spades. A heads' delight.

Something I Feel also comes accompanied by a Dejan Dex Remix that's aimed fair and square at the tech-house floors. This latter's okay in and of itself, and it'll no doubt have its fans… but why you'd ditch that great b-line and throw in a bunch of ear-piercing, top-end percussion sounds instead baffles me a little, so I'll stick to the original. Personally I'm much more into bonus cut Lost Your Beans, a dark n' moody tech-house throbber in that east London warehouse style, coming topped off with chopped-up Afro-y vocal snips.

Very solid stuff, despite my quibbles about the Dex mix.

Out: This week

About: This is but the latest in a long line of gems from DJ Sydney's Tokyo Red Recordings, who can be found on MySpace or via Sydney's own Facebook page.