★★★★★
The latest leg of Focus On… is sequenced in such a way that once arid, star-lit, deep and consistent grooves are regarded as assured, and at worst as a deep house/techno stereotype, German schemer Dexter riles his portfolio into retaliation. “Night Away” is first to bite back with a grittier riff taking it back to jack yet pushing on, with feisty success seen to by vocal moll Geraldine Roth. With “Murder” its likeminded, raw yet buff accomplice, both hit with an icy bite, yet no amount of drive can hide the fact both are based on the simplest of loop ditties. “Papillion” is more the brains behind the operation, slickly going about its business with an organ bassline chewing a toothpick of cool.
More dusky rhythms are hot for turning on the style. “No House for Old Men” and the saxed-up “Storm” both play an action hero checking its cufflinks aren’t out of place while beats rumble past its ears. So you’re getting a whole lotta class that you can still worked up by and to, thanks to Dexter’s astuteness giving the dancefloor an extra ten percent with perfect drops of the needle. Again it’s not science, but it is textbook, done by putting uncomplicated bends in the straight up and down (even affording a little trance sensibility to “Sirens”), then returning to a more controlled and collected state. One genuine surprise is the concluding remix for Gender Bombs, a post-dubstep/Portishead elegy switching the spotlight that suits Mr. Dexter extremely well.
File under: Burns, DJ Q, Nahn Solo