Of all the House-labels, Tartelet is one of my favorites these days. That’s not only because their releases have that certain groove, but also because the Danish don’t give a single damn about trends. The three tracks on James Braun’s Massacre EP transmit this philosophy, and still, none of the songs sounds alike. The nine-minute title track is a simple House-track per se: a jazzy piano-sample, 4/4-bass-drum, swirling hi-hats. It’s just that, at first, nothing seems to go together. The track acts like an athlete when warming up, shaking every single body part and wobbling its limbs. After four and a half minutes, the footgear (ie. kick-drum) is being checked once more and, out of a sudden, it runs smoothly. In the end, James Braun lands an easy finish. The B-side, Retrace Your Steps, keeps up the predecessor’s speed and, within seven minutes, expands the musician’s repertoire by dub-effects and a funky bass-line, so that the difference between James Braun and James Brown is not only marked phonetically. Slapper is finally considerably slower than the 120 BPM before and puts the snare into its main focus. On it, a five-and-a-half-minute march is being drummed, which, after a minute and a half, is accompanied by some serious vinyl-scratching to add an experimental touch to it. The Massacre EP definitely doesn’t lack the love for details. It’s just a tiny bit of depths that’s missing here and there.
Massacre
