Time flies when you're madly dancing: DJ/producer Josh Wink's house, techno and electronica label, Ovum, is now ten years old and to celebrate the label has put out a retrospective collection coyly labeled The Fall Collection, curated and imperceptibly mixed by Wink himself.
Covering the label's range from the chilled to the overheated, the 13 tracks include Rulers of the Deep's trancey "Elu Om Mi Ulu," with fab, fly polyrhythms that knock on the door but never quite enters the house before giving way to David Alvarado's electra-glide in blue "Klugh," a huge limo of a track with gentle melodic flourishes within a propulsive unfolding.
"Klugh" in turn transforms into Aaron Carl's "My House," which, true to its word, gets smoothly funky with soulful diva-in-repose vocals from an unnamed singer and '70s wah-wah guitar. Wink's own "Sixth Sense (Booty In the Butta Mix)" kicks with poet Ursula Rucker cooing her lack of regard for gravity over a smooth but irresistible beat, augmented with jazzy vibes.
DJ Dozia gets deeply tribal on "The Ritual," Alexkid chops and stabs his way to the border of house and hip-hop, Steve Bu's "Houze" is spare, spunky and semi-sinister. D'julz hearkens back to the days of analog aceed on "Acid Tricks," Mirage's "What's the Message" offers a taste of heavy-ish house dub, and the Universal Agents phase us into warpy techno.
The collection wraps up with the supple ambience of DJ Stryke's "Perfect Love" - in all an enveloping, satisfying our through the annals of Ovum and a tour of some of the most interesting places electronic dance music has visited in the last ten years.
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