RED RACK'EM Vinilo y CD

Review: 2024 marks two decades since the release of Danny Berman's first 12" as Red Rack'em. To mark the occasion, he's conjured up a new underground anthem - the spectacularly celebratory and life-affirming 'Italo Disco Banger', whose title self-consciously references his prior mega-hit, the wildly popular 'Wonky Bassline Disco Banger'. Championed by Gerd Janson, amongst many others, 'Italo Disco Banger' is joyous and uplifting, with sparkling piano riffs, cascading synthesiser lead lines, heady female vocal snippets, guitar samples and Rimini-ready flourishes riding a sequenced bassline and metronomic Italo-disco drums. Add in occasional booming bass pulses, and you have a guaranteed winner. Flipside 'Hotline' takes a slightly more left-of-centre approach to quirky cut-up disco, with Berman adding more trademark bassline wonkiness in his distinctive style. In a word: essential!

Review: With his release schedule operating at a gentle pace to allow for each of his twelves to sit and be considered on their own merit, Daniel 'Red Rack'Em' Berman makes just his second outing of 2013 with this pair of cuts for the ever strengthening Wolf Music. It's a record that shows off Berman's idiosyncratic approach to deep house on two very different levels. The first track, "In Love Again", is as blissed-out and heartfelt a take as you could wish for, from the sumptuous pad lines to the plastic strings that positively ooze contentment and passion. "Latin Techno" meanwhile is perhaps less predictable based on its title, opting for a jagged cut up of drum machine patterns and contorted brass sounds but rubbing them up in a non-direct way that makes for a delirious and utterly singular end result.