The Trip

Review: Like its five predecessors, the sixth volume in the ongoing Nuances de Nuit series gathers together club-focused cuts from a quartet of producers, all of which could be considered rising stars of the underground tech-house scene. Sometime Subsequent contributor James Andrew kicks off proceedings with 'Reality Call', a bumping, elasticated bounce through spacey and swinging tech-house territory, before Nathan Pinder peppers a driving groove with deep space sounds and mid '90s US garage chords on 'Stutter'. Over on the reverse, The Trip offers up a tough, driving and melodic workout ('Big Trouble'), while Tip Top steals the show via the bleeping dub house hypnotism of 'Control Alt Defeat', where swelling pads, deep sub-bass and delay-laden electronics catch the ear.

Review: Having spent the last couple of years establishing the Tessellate label via fine EPs from the likes of Aleksandir and Armless Kid, imprint co-founders Max van Dijk and Oli Hiam have decided the time is right to debut their new production project, The Trip. "Wet Your Whistle" is certainly a confident and quietly impressive debut, with the title track adding a little intergalactic futurism and acid-flecked psychedelia to a retro-futurist deep house groove. They continue to join the dots between the eras on "Miss The Point", where glitchy tech-house style electronics and acid flashes leap above a chunky groove and bold organ stabs. The flipside boasts two versions of "Friend Request": their own bouncy, bass-heavy, skipping and acid-flecked "Sax Mix", and the weighty, off-planet tech-house flex of the Mbius rework.