Kres: Hold Back EP
Thirty5

Thirty5's twenty-third release features two old-school deep house bombs from young Italian producer Kres plus two versions of the material by label boss DJ Landmark. In his originals, Kres doesn't rewrite the deep house rule-book by any stretch of the imagination, but that doesn't render them any less pleasurable. It's fabulous stuff that's never more tasty than when the producers strip the material down and let the grooves roar.

Warmed by silken synths and oozing euphoric feeling, the title cut slays with a swizzling, razor-sharp groove and jacking bass pulse that Kres elevates with intertwined vocal refrains (“Come on” and “Gotta hold back this feelin'”) and primal whoops. Kres's second original “Word Up” follows the opener's lead in weaving (male and female) vocal phrases together to spellbinding effect (“What's goin' on?” and “You and me”) whilst a classic deep house rhythm works its own kind of syncopated magic alongside—and the mid-song breakdown and frothy aftermath are nice touches, too. In terms of Landmark's techno-fied makeovers, the clubby “Cocktail of Parts” remix—aka “Word Up vs Hold Back”—offers a hard-hitting fusion of the Kres cuts that's as fresh as the originals, whereas the closing dub of same trippily twists the phrases and in the process exposes the rave heart beating at the center of Kres's originals.

June 2013