(Future Classic / Inertia)

If you like your House music deep and fruity with a nod to the dub-side, Deepchild is your kind of Australian. His latest offering, a 12” of ‘Blackness of the Sea’ features a new Deepchild mix of the track beside another by Luomo, and the original Deepchild track ‘Life Time’.

‘The Blackness of the Sea’s vocal line is more of a pitched poem, and runs on meter more than melody. The bed track itself features a constant kick, snare and throbbing bass line, while washes of glitches, pads and echoes create a moving textural field behind the soulful female vocalist. The voice is that of a restrained diva, holding back from embellishment, and thereby fusing well with the constant bed track.

‘Life Time’ is too good to call a B-side, and is vintage Deepchild. The track features all of Deepchild’s favourite chops: sexy and soulful female vocal samples, dub echoes, and distant, almost submerged clicks and pops. A warm and softly buzzing bass line steals the show here with its unusually melodic phrasing, despite it taking its place humbly in the middle of the mix.

The Luomo remix slices up the vocals a bit, and tweaks the effects to make it a little harder and tighter than Deepchild’s remix. The Finnish touch is a contrast to the more organic treatment from the original artist’s remix. I caught Deepchild when he toured with Entropic last year, and suggest you do the same if you get the chance, for his live PA set. As for anyone who’s playing dub or deep house, you cannot overlook this leading light of the Australian underground scene, or this fine new release.