Fancy a reminder of your own finitude? Glenn Underground’s classic Atmosfear is now 30 years old. The deep-house blueprint, which stands in no way behind milestones by the likes of Larry Heard, only shows its age insofar as it brims with pioneering spirit and a joy in experimentation. This album entered largely unexplored terrain and, at the time, brought together unorthodox elements that at first glance did not necessarily belong together: loon samples with powerful horns, long, free-spirited piano playing with synths from the »Washing Machine« and, perhaps most importantly, gripping analogue drumming that nips any hint of aimless muso excess in the bud.
Atmosfear hits more or less the midpoint between the serious depth of Mr. Fingers and the wired-up energy of Paul Johnson, and knows when to do without samples of analogue instruments – just listen to the machine funk of »May Datroit«. What follows is the album’s absolute hit: across »Colouration«, simple five-key chords answer one another, while in the background pads swell and recede like drifts of smoke – simple, but effective. Anyone who hears this track knows immediately, even in 2026, what deep house means: immediacy, bliss, shelter. And, of course, creative basslines such as on »Dance Slam«, which, like a Penrose staircase, seem to have neither beginning nor end. Glenn Underground’s greatest achievement is probably to have fused all these ingredients into a unity across the album’s full length.
