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[THEMA027] Just Love Baby​.​.​.

by Christopher Rau

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B2. Rabulism 07:00
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about

With our recent forays into the Hamburg house sound, we at THEMA think it should come as no surprise for our fans to see us moving on up and enlisting other well-recognized names from that small scene. We’ve been keeping it diverse recently by looking to Detroit, France and the UK for other vibes, but we have to say that with the seductive sound of Hamburg getting bigger by the minute there’s few who earn higher marks on that list than Christopher Rau. He’s already garnered strong support from our friends over at Smallville, but we can’t overlook his contributions to the mysterious Giegling imprint as well as smart drops on Anton Zap’s Ethereal Sound and DJ Koze’s Pampa. Of course good position and good releases don’t always go hand in hand, but we’ve been finding it difficult to stop listening to his stuff for some time now. We don’t know if it’s that deep and urbane European house sound that has us so seduced or whether it’s his smart beat work that keeps us coming back, but for his North American debut here at THEMA he’s brought the heat once again with a clutch of harder-hitting head nodders that we’re confident will keep the decks spinning for some time to come.

It gets started with “Spring Loop”, a track that looks to its name both for feeling and production sense. Of course that sensuous vocal sample that gets drawn through it wouldn’t do the job on its own, but Rau knows that too and surrounds it with a warm, humid bassline and his always changing and snapping drums to keep it in the pocket for the whole 5 minutes. Even though the groove on the A1 is already heavy for him, he goes deeper yet with “Swearing (Vinyl Version)” That Jamaican vocal is something so classic that we won’t spoil it here, but the pumping house beat and piano stabs he winds around it give even more poignancy to the lyrical substance… we’re pretty sure that by the time he finally echoes the vocal out late in the track there will be some hands in the air for this one. If “Détournement” slows down a little and mellows out, it’s only because he had to, but we’re hoping that you’ll find yourself as lost in the intricately wound subtleties of the tune as we are. Ethereal is the word here, and when it rises into the dawn light in the second half we think you’ll get a little higher too. “Rabulism” takes things squarely back to the sweaty floor with some molasses-thick, slowly flowing pads laid over a tweaked vocal and a muscular house strut before he brings even sweeter melodies when he lets it hit a couple minutes in. It’s some funky dancefloor business, and we’re sure it will move feet almost anywhere for a strong finish
to our vinyl EP.

Again we’ve included a little bonus for those who prefer files to flight cases: his alternate, afterhours version of “Swearing (The Love Edit)” just flips that track a different way with a slowly emerging, rollicking disco beat perfect for the 8am crowd. It should be no shock to see Christopher Rau coming correct once again, but THEMA is right there with him for the perfect partnership between us and one of Hamburg’s finest sons.

Text by: Albert Freeman

credits

released May 10, 2012

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Thema Recordings Berlin, Germany

Thema Recordings, Thema Digital Series & Chronicle Records all were created in Brooklyn NYC by native New Yorker, Lenny Posso but since 2014 are all now based out of Berlin, Germany. Each label specializing in deep explorations within Techno, House, Deep House, Experimental dance music from various forward thinking artists from around the world. ... more

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