[Royal Oak]

Royal Oak is a Clone sub-label that has put out music by Reggie Dokes, Gerd and Space Dimension Controller in its two year history. Its releases slot perfectly in between the new house underground of insular labels like NDATL Muzik, We Play House, Psychostasia, and Uzuri and the larger number of contemporary deep house outfits that branch out as far as they can into the mainstream. The latest Royal Oak 12″, from Genius of Time, shows why Clone just doesn’t get enough love. Genius of Time have already established themselves as a talented outfit by releasing some worthwhile tracks on their own Aniara Recordings, based in their native Sweden. Their Same Old Place EP especially put its finger on the warm, polished, and deep aesthetic that is Move D’s calling card, starting with the more typically European predilection for smooth and shimmering sound design and arriving at the authentic feeling that Chicago and Detroit deep house strives towards by means of all those jagged edges. But Drifting Back/Houston We Have a Problem is likely the best to date from Genius of Time, meriting discussion on its own terms rather than just by mapping its position in the house forest.

“Drifting Back” is a suitably chilled excursion, with all the soft pads, reverb, mellowly tinkling organ chords and intermittent conga you might expect from a less talented Moodymann. (That’s a complement, of course!) The cannabis haze clears enough on “Houston We Have a Problem” to see the stars in between the branches of the Oak we’re dancing under. A plundering bass line and sound design as crisp as the night breeze start the party before bold and enrapturing female vocals complete a thoroughly memorable ditty, the EP’s strongest track. “Juxtapose” is meditative and at the same time tightly groove driven, but the song structure is a little too loosey-goosey for my taste. Where the previous tracks distilled their open air charm into effective, refined club fodder, “Juxtapose” more often just floats away. Of course, perhaps that’s the point. Another fine release from Royal Oak that finds Clone’s newer signings matching the quality of their more established label mates.