The Drive

Hamburg’s Florian Kruse is a bright new light in house music. Following collaborations with Nils Nürnberg and releases on Urbantorque, Om Records, and Dieb Audio, his debut for Chicago’s Fresh Meat, "The Drive EP", conjures up the early 1990’s warehouse era in all their melodic soul-stirring glory. There is great separation, however, between poaching from the past and reinventing it. Florian’s E.P. is wildly creative and unique – his mining from our shared house experience culminates in the three stunningly original tracks featured here. "The Drive” sounds at home today as it would have on KMS 18 years ago. The chant brotha, brotha, brotha is propelled by ring modulations, delicate piano, echoed analog percussion, pristine wind, muted swells and cutting stabs. Florian's "Shake it Off” goes deeper and is a dub-saturated emotional electronic jam. A noble Rhodes offsets the driving rhythm section and melancholy dewy analog brass and other synthesizers, which build and breathe throughout. The last tune “Close” has the swing and sensibility of a bumping back room club track with Florian playing experimental melodies and tones and setting down funky vocal samples, classic house percussion, and echoed analog drums. Nathan’s gorgeous mix of "Shake it Off" is Florian’s original seen through the end of a long Chicago winter (yes, horses walk by on Lake Street). For the Sigma mix, Nathan takes a classic approach favoring the basic structure and sound of the original while fuzzing it out a bit, adding melodic, rhythmic and psychedelic overdubs, care of vintage romplers, a string machine and tape echoes, among other unlikely instruments. With all its elation and sorrow, Nathan’s loose and dancy arrangement is bliss on the dance floor.