[Tartelet]

The name Kenton Slash Demon is probably not too familiar to most house and techno fans, but they are in fact members of indie band When Saints Go Machine (recently featured as remixed by dOP in Koze’s RA podcast). You’re not going to find any dance-rock or blog house or whatever it’s called these days here, though. “Khattabi,” the sixth installment for Copenhagen’s Tartelet Records offers multi-faceted tech house with a couple of surprises thrown in.

Percussion that wouldn’t sound out of place on an Oslo record and deep bass tones opens the title track until suddenly spiked with Eastern melodies from nowhere, a disorienting twist. Descending strings make an slide in to quickly change of pace until the tipsy rhythms come stumbling back in. “Singla” features similar drums but with vocal hums providing the only real melody, a nice counterpart to what preceded it. “Brunn” takes things in a very different direction, featuring big band horns evoking a swinging parade. Near the end the horns change their tune and a ride cymbal arrives to anchor everything in place. It may sound like too much for its own good, but the surprise is that everything works here. African-tinged percussion, brass instruments and odd Eastern instruments are all things that we’ve seen used by producers to make bland records sound interesting, but here that’s not the case. “Khattabi” is original without sounding like Kenton Slash Demon are trying too hard, and looks to raise their profile a bit in the dance scene.