★★★★☆
If Cutting Edge stands for throwing in any number of styles, Luke Solomon is at the sharp end. The mixing of the man whose career spans three decades and had made Music for Freaks and Classic tracks with Derrick Carter, is not 100%, seamlessly crash hot, and the selection takes on a varied pattern that’s entirely down to intuition. But all of the above statistics must mean the UK club connoisseur has an inkling as to what he’s doing.
After a ponderous deep tech-house warm-up including his own work as The Digital Kid, Red Rack’em’s filthy “How I Program” gets the mix up and involved, seized upon by Kris Wadsworth and Crooked Man stepping into twitchy deep house shoes with plenty of kick in them. Some slinky vocal house burning with an original Chicago tinge then takes its turn, settling the mix into a warming shake that hustles on the low. Solomon acts up again with the excellent introduction of Andy Meecham’s acid kneecapping “Morning Banger” and Iz & Diz’s “Juvenated,” creeping with a boom of a bassline through gritted teeth.
Then the funk stages a fight back with Brett Johnson’s definition of off-the-hook, before another surprise move has the Flo-Rida-sharing “I Really Do Believe” closing with an acid-funk hula-hoop. Solomon’s score: rough around the you-know-what, but never blunted.
File under: Jonny Fiasco, Kink, Freaks