- Sam Stosuur (aka Sam Maguire) has just released his second EP of the year, entitled Seeds. It comes hot on the heels of his debut, Dunlop Molley, that came out via Beats Of No Nation in August. You may have seen play bass with Astro Travellers, Tiana Khasi or Sampology (along with inumerable other groups no doubt). Stosuur was also one third of Middle Name Dance Tracks with Megan Christensen of Pink Matter and Sampology. If all this doesn't mean much to you, you'll be pleasantly surprised by Seeds – a house release with elements of hiphop and jazz that is what house is so good at being, joyous.
The Seeds Intro starts off with some spoken word explanation of the release and I don't know if its really the Twin Peaks actor or just a good approximation. Either way it doesn't matter. It sets a humourous tone for the rest of the EP. Used 2 B starts with distant samples as keys noodle and spaced out vocals roll in from still further away; the hihats slip in and we're down to business. A smooth pad opens I'm Real before the filter is opened and the hi-hats come in. Samples come in and out as the groove develops. I particularly enjoy the flute stabs. Siren Song has a techno feel with the percolating sequence in the fore. The EP's title-track is more of a downtempo approach with lovely vocals parts brought by Merinda Dias-Jayasinha. Raindrop starts out with some four-to-the-flour 909, which fills the time fine for a minute and a half the bass drops in glorious fashion.
On the whole all the tracks develop over their run time and contain quite a lot of variety. This is testament to Stosuur's jazz chops: the arrangements always remaining interesting. Though this is a house record, there's a whole lot more contributed by its other styles than most so-called jazz-house or hip-hip influenced dance affairs. The songs remind me of early Avalanches or Cut Copy (before they released their respective debut LPs), full of intesting samples and musicality. Those were some pretty pleasant memories and this a new one to add to the list.
- Hillfolk.