[liebe*detail spezial]

Mancunian house producer Tom Demac hasn’t exactly been on my top producers-to-watch list, but maybe that should change after his first solo release on liebe*detail. Demac’s tracks on the twelve are intensely layered, knotted and labyrinthine to the point where it’s hard to tell what’s going on at any one moment. Despite the disorientation of so much simultaneous movement, Demac manages to pull off some impressive grooves, and both tracks carry enough detail to stay interesting even if you can’t find your way into the groove.

“Ten From Seventeen” pairs curiously dark elements — grumbling vocal samples, downstroke chords and a hell of a psychedelic bass line — with hesitant piano chords that occasionally break out into sunnier progressions. It’s thick and swampy, but if you can immerse yourself in the muck it’s a hell of a propulsive mover. Building on top of another snaking but slightly catchier bass line, “This Is What I Want” is the friendlier side, a more conventional but still slinky beat lightly touched by yearning vocal samples. But Demac clouds it with chords that stretch over like cheesecloth, gently obscuring the groove and blurring the elements together just slightly, a shimmering mirage of a track that still retains some physicality from its low-end: again, disorienting.

The EP also provides two remixes of “Ten From Seventeen” for less convoluted takes on Demac’s music. Iron Curtis pries apart its tight constructions, wisely keeping the bobbing bass line but throwing it under a more gradual beat and making its chord stabs and vocal samples more predictable: deep house, basically. Soulphiction speeds up the bass line until it’s like a hyperactive ball bearing rolling back and forth, building up heat released as humid waves of steam in his synth-heavy rework, but it’s still a vision of clarity compared to the original. With such dense, complex tracks, Demac presents himself as a genuinely interesting producer, and it’s also the most memorable release related to liebe*detail in ages.

[liebe*detail spezial] (buy vinyl) (buy .mp3s)

For their latest spezial release, liebe*detail reaches back to Efdemin’s 2006 breakthrough track, “Lohn & Brot” (“Wages & Bread”) and enlists two disparate yet similarly revered producers — Tobias Freund and Sebo K — to have another look. First up is Freund (as tobias.), a electronic veteran whose career as Pink Elln, Sieg Über Die Sonne (with Martin Schopf), NSI (with Max Loderbauer), Odd Machine (with Villalobos) and a few others reaches back to 1985 and shows no sign of a downturn. While he retains the track’s basic elements, his version flattens its peaks and valleys into a straightforward dance floor experience. Its signature syncopations are propped up by muted auxiliary percussion and a flurry of classic hi-hat swishes. More functional than flashy, Tobias’ version steamrolls dancers rather than making them wait for the next hook, and has garnered support from DJ Koze and Ripperton.

Listen to “Lohn & Brot” (tobias. Remix):

2007 found Sebo K having better luck with remixes and DJing than producing (his “Transit E.P” with Metro hardly got off the ground, even with a King Britt remix), and he seems on point with two versions on the flipside. The first moves away from the original for a more stereotypically deep house sound, marked by a three note bass line, flecks of digital clave, blushing melodic movements, and a de-tuned vocal sample deadpanning, “Beta” (I think). Nothing earth-shaking, but well-suited for this year’s deep-house hungry climate and can be found in Âme, Dixon and Anja Schneider’s crates. Version two makes only minor tweaks, altering the number of notes in a loop or their attacks and occasionally dropping in some congas for a slightly more vintage feel. Interestingly, the track order matches their rank in quality, though the tobias. remix is reason enough to pick this one up.