Rees Devils Club

Following releases from label founder Palms Trax, a reissue of eighties Chicago House innovator Rog’e, and a pair of cassette mixtapes from Berlin-based selectors Enchanted Rhythm and Budino, Cwpt looks to the North-East of England for its next release, live and direct from Rees. Hot on the heels of a twelve-inch on Bordello A Parigi and underscoring a slowly simmering reputation as one of the brightest stars of his community, Rees’s debut on Cwpt is a classy and globally informed perspective on house, disco and acid styles. Undistilled rhythm is at the heart of Rees’s vision of club culture; on title track, Devils Club, it’s effect makes itself known immediately, driving a channel of lively percussion towards a series of tasteful breakdowns that are both propulsive and alluring. On ‘Magic’, a confidently raw, loose drum loop accelerates into a glossy, psychedelic speed-chase that’s pure Miami Vice reimagined in Middlesbrough. On the flip, two versions of ‘The Spirit’ tastefully expand beyond Rees’s musical borders and into warm, cinematic territory, blending tropically tinted instrumentation with (and then without) an entrancing vocal sample.