You may want to challenge me on my opinion, but 2008 has started out pretty slow. There haven’t really been any releases that I would be excited about, however this one gets quite close. True, it’s a little too much Innervisions. Still, the drum programming is great on “Sceada” (my favorite of the two, if I need to pick), and both tracks have the intrigue that most of the Ame copycats lack. Beatport release info even describes “Mantikor” as giving you the feeling of “dancing on a volcano”. I wouldn’t know anything about that, but kudos to whoever wrote the review – with this kind of imagination, who needs drugs anyway.

A: Sceada
B: Mantikor

Listen at Juno
Buy at Juno

I have already revealed my soft spot for the dramatic type of tracks. Here’s one interesting record that fits the description. I’m talking about a group called Dflex, which according to Discogs and to my complete surprise consists of five more or less legendary producers – Ashley Beedle, Darren House, Darren Rock, Luke McCarty, Phil Asher. That’s a nice band for you.

They have produced an interesting 12” on the label Tiny Sticks. It caught my attention mainly for the piano-driven “Waltz”, which comes in two mixes, one essentially being the beatless version of the other. The main mix evolves nicely over the 8 minutes, starting off with sort of Ame-like beats (isn’t everything Ame-like these days…) and topping it with a decent piano track that travels from jazzy to impressionist to housey, being dramatic all the while. That’s enough to win me over.

The other track, “Evif”, is what people call “electronica” at Beatport, but which to me is jazz played on instruments both classical to the genre (saxophone, Rhodes) and electronic (analogue synthezisers). It is as enjoyable as “Waltz”, although not really a club track.

But enough of the pigeonholing now. Here it is.

A: Waltz (extended)
B1: Evif
B2: Waltz (am-bient)

Listen at Juno
Buy at Juno

Writing about „Fiori” (meaning “flowers” in Italian) seems kind of inevitable, considering that Ame have went over the top again with this record. This is not an easy challenge, when you have already come out with something as huge as “Rej”, created something referred to as “ame-house”, recently added more hits such as the remix of DJ Gregory’s “Elle” and their own “Balandine” EP (“Enoi”, oh my gosh!). Also, most probably I will very soon be writing about the sick remix for Etienne Jaumet, which is a 3/4 meter madness alike “Fiori”.

What’s already been said about this track? That it’s a piece created together with and for the Berlin Staatsballet. That it’s got references to Philip Glass and Jean-Michel Jarre. That it’s an epic minimal cosmic larger-than-life disco marathon. What do I even have to add to that? Maybe it’s a silly parallel, but I don’t recall a 15+ minutes hit like this since Blaze remixing Mondo Grosso’s “Star Suite”. Me being a sucker for slow build-ups, “Fiori” is like the slow build-up heaven. I personally intend to play the full version of the track in the club (although there’s actually a club-friendly edit included on the 12”) just to see people waiting for the beat for 7 minutes. So what? It’s not every day you get to dance to ballet music.

A: Fiori (Original Mix)
B: Fiori (Club Edit)

myspace.com/amevrank
Listen at Juno
Buy at Juno
Buy at Amazon.com