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I've only been a fan of France born, Berlin-based producer and DJ Strip Steve for a couple of months - which is something I'm slightly ashamed to admit, as he flew under my radar for far, far too long, and his sophomore EP - which was released through BNR in October 2009 - is an absolutely brilliant five tracker which manages to blend hard-hitting French house, the late 90s American sound, acid and electro with dashes of hip-hop and breakbeat influence to boot - and, as to be expected, I was instantly hooked, largely because it's extremely fun, at many points rambunctious yet effortlessly stylish, and above all - it has the power to completely destroy clubs almost seventeen years after its initial release - which is why this EP has stayed firmly in my digital DJ crate since my first few listens!
I suppose that's not really a surprise though. Seeing as he grew up on funk, disco, rap, Daft Punk's seminal debut album Homework and one of his heroes is Chicago legend Ron Hardy, all of these influences were bound to cross paths with each other on one of his releases, and while his first release - the fantastic Skip School, was a playful mix of filter house that borrowed from rock and nu disco, stamped with his signature style of rough, short sampling techniques - Delta Disco is a little more polished, but it's far more epic, interesting and quite simply, it's bad-ass right from the get-go, with the opening two tracks serving as synth heavy, pumping jams complete with tons of great beats, extremely tight production and, as it damn well should be, tons and tons of groove. My pick does go to AM/FM however, largely due to the numerous stylistic callbacks to turntablism and late 80s rap amongst a backdrop of tweaky-synths and glitchy programming.
The following pair of tracks - namely the brilliant Dancin' and the striking Children take a far more traditional approach, trading in the synthesis for two stone-cold disco shredding workouts that are equally brilliant, exhilarating and heavy, leaving little room to breathe in the best way possible. To me, these tracks feel like a welcome continuation of the work of various legends such as Sneak and Olav Basoski (albeit, they've been amped up a little more because well, it was the late 2000s and everything was a little more crazy then, let's be honest!) while still managing to sound fresh and inventive, and it's no wonder that these jams later got support from the likes of French superhero and maestro The Phantom's Revenge (with half of Delta Disco being featured in his 'Good Guys Wear Black' mixtape) - while Dancin' was remixed by German house music legend Ian Pooley!
Finally, Delta Disco closes (at least, on the digital version) with a bonus - the brilliant Point Break, which is a far cry from the rest of this release - as the hard hitting beats, tight production and multi-genre influence step back, and what's left is an Alan Braxe-esque outing with a bunch of distinct lo-fi charm, which could (and totally will appeal!) to readers that are more in tune with the 'classic' late 90s and early 2000s French / filter house sound - it's much slower, more soulful in some way, and after four tracks that are built for wild parties, a summery track like Point Break that could have been signed to Vulture Music - which is also filled with lots of glittery instrumentation, making it even more glamorous and cool, ends Delta Disco on a damn near perfect note.
In short, this EP is absolutely brilliant, and I absolute urge you, fellow readers, to go and give it a spin if you haven't already, alongside the rest of Theo's fantastic discography - the journey that awaits you is super, super sweet!
Rating: 9/10
You can stream Delta Disco in various places - the YouTube Music link is provided below.
I hope that you've enjoyed reading today's review (the first in a very long time!) - and as always, keep enjoying your stay at the discotheque.
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