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With a remarkable career already spanning more than a decade and a half, one of the original residents of the UK’s legendary Club Class becomes the first veteran to hit the Leaders Of The New School label with the Sideline Soul EP this month. The Toolroom Knights tour DJ follows the success of the ‘Counter Steps EP’ on Fanciulli’s Saved Recordings with another serving of fresh underground goodness on Toolroom’s junior imprint.
Opening with ‘Happy Landing’, Andrews takes me back to the late 90s with a long drawn out synth and droopy acid notes. Bouncy and deep, this balmy track slowly grew on me with it’s open atmospheric groove. As the track ripens, it steers into tech-house territory with a tight vocal sample and hazy melody. Definitely one for the grown-ups, Happy Landing is deep house like momma used to make. Second track ‘Sweet Things’ is a complete seachange as Andrews flaunts his versatility dropping a skippy broken beat, hollow percussion and precise filtered vox. A hypnotic piano melody drives the busy track down an immersive path in this avant-garde piece. The final number ‘Smoke and Mirrors’ falls somewhere in between its two predecessors as watery padded minimal beats tick along before eventually opening up into a funky, deep tech-house number with a rolling drum and whoomping bassline.
There is no denying that the ‘Sideline Soul EP’ is beautifully layered and patiently composed. The cuts are deep and languid, with extended minimal intros which expand at length, peak and then courteously fold back in on themselves to close. Three solid and groovy tracks great for warming up an intimate dancefloor, all self-contained and tidy but sadly lacking a little Lawler sleaze to liven things up a bit. Arguably one of the most introspective of the Leaders of The New School series to date, the Sideline Soul EP is more at home in the afterhours club or terrace than the main event.
