(Soma/Stomp)

Funk D’Void and Phil Kieran aren’t household names in the tech scene for nothing. They’ve been releasing quality music for years as solo artists, and more recently have started collaborating, already putting out solid head-f**king cuts such as Black Worm and Tick Tick Tick. But on their latest release for Soma the duo take things back down a notch, going for some deep minimal tech house grooves.

The A-side, White Light, is the perfect example of how melodic tech house should be: deep, warm, emotional, and very, very intelligent, but still punchy and dancefloor friendly. This track is just as likely to tug at your heart strings and get your brain working in overdrive to comprehend its complexity and depth as it to get your feet moving on a dancefloor. Although minimal in its construction, featuring only stripped-back percussion (and I mean really stripped back), a deep, wobbly 303 bassline, and some buzzy sweeps and keys, the track manages to remain interesting thanks to lots of cleverly placed breakdowns, bridges, and key changes, which allow the track to ebb and flow without resorting to obvious builds and breaks. White Light really is the perfect name for this cut, as it sounds almost heavenly thanks to the deep bassline that goes up the harmonic scale as it progresses, the warm chords and the odd magical synth stabs. As cheesy as it sounds, it’s almost possible to imagine heaven’s gates opening during the track and a bright light spreading out from them; seriously, close your eyes and try it. Sublime music.

On the flip is Black As You Like, yet another appropriate title. Not only is this nice and dark, but it’s almost the polar opposite of White Light, making the choice to use black in the title definitely an inspired one. While White Light decides to take the warm, uplifting and melodic route, Black As You Like is dark, chunky and percussive. Once again going for the stripped-back approach, Funk D’Void and Phil Kieran create a fairly simplistic groove that is based around a tight kick, deep sub bass, rolling hats, off-beat sci-fi sounds, and a cool percussive roll that is reminiscent of the sound from Matthias Tanzmann’s remix of Movin’.

However despite its simplicity, Black As You Like never gets too minimal for its own good as D’Void and Kieran keep changing up the various elements in subtle and interesting ways, particularly through the use of reverb and echo. Nonetheless, this still probably isn’t the sort of track you’d play in its entirety, as it may not interest some of the less patient punters on the dancefloor. However due to its simplicity, it works as an excellent tool, meaning you can mix out of it early to save losing the less open-minded punters and keep it layered over the next track for a good few minutes as an extra percussive layer. Quality stuff.

Looks like Funk D’Void and Phil Kieran have done it again. Great work, lads.