The Jan Diaries — Edinburgh Deep House with Inner Shift Music

Red Bull Hrvatska · The Jan Diaries · 3 November 2021

After a run of technical columns on recording and mixing, Jan Kinčl took a deliberate break and turned the spotlight on a label instead. The connection is recent: he had been working with Brad Peterson and Rai Scott following the release of Odd Socks on the German Deep Inspiration Show Records, a box of vinyl arrived from their Edinburgh label Inner Shift Music, and the column is essentially him going through it record by record.

The records

Mark Hand’s Take Some Chances gets the longest look, because it survives so many contexts — run the pitch where you want it and it works in a small room or on a festival main stage. Kinčl played it at Butik in Slovenia, where it defined the set. What holds it up is the construction: a Chicago-ish square lead over warm synth pads, later opened out with strings and Rhodes, which he attributes to Hand’s experience. The B-side splits between G-Prod’s Horizon, misty chord pads with a lead emerging out of the haze, and Leo Gunn’s Aheeoo, his second favourite here and a textbook B2 — deep house and broken beat, laid-back Rhodes chords, keys wandering about without hurrying anywhere.

Brad Peterson’s first release on his own Common Dreams sublabel is a ten-inch of deep techno built on hypnotic repetition, with synths and discreet acid lines cycling through the B-side and an A-side Kinčl calls proper four-in-the-morning club techno, resting on a simple but effective chord interplay and tested where it counts. Then Chubby! — Various Vol. 3, a split between Chicago veteran Vincent Floyd and Peterson: Floyd’s Meditation is synth-chord deep house with layered melodies, pads and a square lead reaching back to the original house sound — which figures, given he played keyboards for Larry Heard — while Peterson’s Time Machine answers with the same palette pushed harder. Equally deep, Kinčl writes, but for different hours of the night. Elsewhere Denormal pairs classic 909 hi-hats with Detroit chords in a way that recalls Mr Fingers, and Night Hiker (Boost ‘N Time Edit) conjures James Stinson’s The Other People Place through a deep house filter.

The part that stayed

Two things carry the piece past a review round-up. The first is Ancient Trees vs. Skyscrapers, Peterson’s more futuristic techno project, where Reality Is Rising sits between techno and house on a driving 909 and reminds Kinčl of Vince Watson’s production from the late nineties and early two-thousands — influences absorbed discreetly, signature intact. The second is Gene Hunt, the Chicago legend whose releases he follows almost without exception. Kayla Dream runs ten minutes on modulating ethereal chords and a superb groove, a masterclass in getting the maximum out of minimal elements; Open Up Your Eye keeps the atmosphere against an atypical distorted beat and a soulful male vocal; and Distant Voyage puts dreamy synths and pads over a broken rhythm and a dangerous bassline. That last one he simply calls an absolute banger.

Read the full piece

The full column, in Croatian, is on Red Bull Croatia. Six minutes.

The Jan Diaries | Edinburški deep house uz Inner Shift Music → redbull.com