Spotlight: Luke Solomon – Ultrasound EP

Written by Manu Ekanayake

A slice of delicious house with an offbeat slant from UK house don Luke Solomon.

 

 

 

Luke Solomon is a stalwart of the UK house scene, being a longtime collaborator with Derrick Carter in Classic Recordingsand with Kenny Hawkes (RIP) on the Space mid-weekers back in the 90s (plus Girls FM too and his chart-topping work with Freaks), but it’s always good to see one of the true school not resting on their laurels and showing how they earned their rep in the first place.

That’s certainly the case here, as Luke’s original take on Ultrasound (for rising label Fullbarr) is a multi-layered piece of ‘house’ that actually contains elements of lots of different genres. Acid seems to hold sway here, with those heavy keys and liquid synths adding a lightness of touch, but then a more driving pulse takes over, along with some eerie vocal mix-ups and even some tribal drums, which take us into more orthodox house territory. And while that might sound a bit like a nightmare, it actually all works very well together.

Zurich producer Kalabrese’s remix takes things more firmly into deep-tech territory, but what starts out as being a bit of a ‘oh, some plink-plonk effects, eh?’ number gets going nicely as the bass kicks in and some warmer synths get in on the action. A nice take on the original that’s maybe more of an early morning version…

Next is Luke’s own 1.2 Horn Version… which as you might expect amps up the trumpet but also hits the bass a little harder, resulting in a heavier, more focused track that’s also got some seriously jazzy undertones. Very nice indeed.

Then finally Playhouse don LoSoul adds his very bassy remix to the pile, with a tough houser that boasts some Chi-town flavour and some seriously tribal drums too. This is a nice addition to an already smart package, with its rock-solid programming proving that you can keep up the funk while still keeping things simple.

Our verdict: Rocking stuff from Mr Solomon, househeads take note... he's not lost his touch.

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