On the Swedish label Studio Barnhus, house music has always been more than mere function: in an emergency, it reaches out with both hands and helps you back to your feet. A gentle, melodic thud on the shoulder. The new four-track release from Faik Shakarchi and Daniel Stranéus – who have spent the past decade and a half trying to charge dancefloors with good spirits – connects with everything that might musically approximate a smile. In just under 20 minutes they craft a strain of machine music that feels both hypnotic and euphoric, always veering off just in time before things grow overly cerebral.
Straight-ahead, functional yet charged tracks such as »Donut Plains«, where the industrious beat twists itself around a small, repetition-driven melody, have it easiest. Yet even the acid-tinged »Royal Links«, arriving with understatement up its sleeve and a hint of keyboard funk, radiates optimism. The compact closer »Sandy Balls Resort« blows the dust from the speakers in under three minutes.
