John Dimas
Living Lies EP
[La Vie En Rose]
Greek native John Dimas is fast becoming highly respected in the house game and his Living Lies EP on La Vie En Rose, an excellent cross-section of the different styles and vibes of house music, should help to further cement that reputation. Opening with an edit of Lee Marrow’s Pain, the EP kicks off to an energetic, old-school influenced start. It’s no secret that a lot of people love hip-house, and this is some of the best that I’ve heard in a long time. Everything about it just works: the 90’s style percussion (complete with a subtle, but definitely vitally important chopped-up break), the bouncy, fun bassline, and the “trying-to-be-badass-but-really-not” MC vocal (which is used just the right amount).
Smoking Drums delivers what the title promises. While there is also a warm, hip-shaking bassline and some stabby chords with just the right amount of funk, it really is the drums where this tune shines. A well-programmed 808 is a thing of beauty, and if this isn’t a damn good example of using an 808 properly in house music, then I don’t know what is. From the tight, punchy kicks to the smooth open hats and that infectious snare roll at the end of every few bars, this is a strong endorsement for the power of analogue gear.
It’s then time for a trip back to New York in the glory days of Strictly Rhythm with Mind Games. Swinging and slightly distorted beats are complemented by a deep sub bass groove, offering the track a real toughness despite its relatively low BPM. The added vocal edits and vocoded chimes are a beautiful touch that keep the track from simply being a pounding jack track and add a little warmth to the mix.
Inside Your Soul is probably the least memorable of the tracks on the release. That’s not to say it’s bad: indeed, it would serve its purpose well during a warm up set or at an afterhours thanks to its deep, subtle bassline and tribal percussion, but there just isn’t much that really makes it stand out from a lot of other deep/tech house of the same flavour. Not a weak effort by any means, but compared to the excellence of the rest of the EP, it feels somewhat flat.
The classic deep house vibes continue with Double You, another bomb that combines low-end chunk with melodic bliss. The bassline is likely to ignite any dancefloor, and the choppy, shuffly groove gives it a certain charm that is missing from a lot of melodic deep house. The chords range from floaty and spacey to wobbly and gritty, which keeps the track from getting monotonous and will keep dancers on their toes.
Hide & Seek rounds out the release with a peculiar, possibly even slightly warped tech house vibe. The groove isn’t anything especially out of the ordinary, composed of a stabby bassline and rugged hats and snares, it’s in the “melodic” aspects of the tune where things get charmingly weird. Echoed wizzes, wobbles and woops intertwine with whispered female vocals and eventually resonant Moog stabs, creating a wonderfully weird palette of sounds and a luscious closer to a diverse selection on this 6 track EP.