[No More Noise Records]

I’ve drawn this analogy before, but cooking and making electronic music are somewhat alike. It’s hard to be truly original, nearly everyone has the same tools and ingredients at hand, and there are lots of amateurs with inflated opinions of their own work. But the comparison seems most apt when looking at finished products. What the average person does with tomatoes, basil and pasta is worlds away from what top chefs put together. Similarly, while anyone with a synth or computer can lay down a kick, bass line and some chords, the result is usually weak compared to the work of say, Marcel Dettmann or Theo Parrish. This difference is even more pronounced in genres like deep house and dub techno, where refinement almost seems to have taken precedence over all else.

Mike Sharon, “Deep Empathy”

Mike Sharon’s Deep Empathy EP, the second record for Sheffield’s No More Noise Records, has all the signature ingredients of deep house. There’s The Jazzy Synth Solo (“Deep Empathy”), The Butt-Shaking Bass (“Deep Empathy” and “In Your Mind”) and, of course, The Soulful Vocal Sample (all of the above). Sharon has clearly been doing his homework. While these elements are obviously all commonplace — OK, cliché — they do interact with a certain level of poise, nodding to the the Israeli’s many years of making music. To return to the analogy: this isn’t mere home-cooked food. And yet, nor is it bothering to differentiate itself. There’s no Lawrence-level refinement here. No Andrés hookiness or Larry Heard soul. Deep Empathy is house music at its best and worst: catchy, approachable, fun. But also slightly forgettable.