★★★★☆
Allegiance pledged to tech-house being a marathon and not a sprint by a dedicated label of close-knit, like-minded grafters, in recent years you couldn’t have asked for tracks any straighter down the line than from Israel’s Punch. Hostile only to a degree, which helps its unwavering temperament lose anticipated monotony, you should know better than to try and act the fool once this 14-track collection has killed the lights. Nickel plated bass beats grabbing at you, skitters of rhythm and percussion skimming within the lines and raising itself above a murmur before remembering that tunnel vision is next to godliness, it’s not here to make your dancefloor experience a pampered one.
Peter Horrevorts’ “Marked in Black” wants to see you sweat, a back and forth sounding like the Dutchman has dedicated his life to discipline, though it’s never quite as wearied as that, and a thin ghostly film covers Muzarco’s “Jaffa” and the looser “The Entrapment”. For variations to an ever-high heart-rate, Yariv Bernstein’s “Shangrila” dips its pistons in acid for a slightly fuller flavor, and DanDrastic’s mix of his “Tandem” is deep house with another acid lineage, finding the club ever more tense despite a fraction more funkiness. See also the synth lines arcing through Mark Marzenit’s remix of “Stringer Bell.”
Strongbox is as it says — it might rate functionality highly, but it won’t tip over anytime soon in its reliability. Disconnect yourself and enjoy.
File under: Gary Beck, Nir Shoshani, Roland M. Dill