Simon Hinter: Pacific / Stay
Phil Records
Having previously released material on ProgCity Deep Trax, Team Records, and Midnight Shift since starting music production in 2000, Simon Hinter now appears on Philogresz's Phil Records with a fine two-tracker. The twelve-inch release, the label's sixth, augments two originals by the Germany-based Hinter with remixes by Philogresz and Basic Soul Unit.
The first original, “Pacific” is as breezy as the ocean its name evokes, a gently uplifting house cut that exudes a subtle whiff of melancholy and longing, rather like a memory welling up in consciousness of a summer long past. It's not all warm pads and soothing textures, though; also present is a sweetly swinging groove to help offset the nostalgic feeling. The Netherlands-based Soylu contributes a “Philogresz Shift” version of “Pacific” whose infectious swagger beefs up the groove quotient and amps up the textural dimension a tad as well. Claps and synth smears add scenic colour to Hinter's cut, making the Philogresz version a more panoramic and aggressive riff on the original.
The second original, “Stay,” is, if anything, even more soothing than the A-side's, with Hinter draping jazzy acoustic piano sprinkles and silken synth accents across a funky house pulse that rolls out with an elegant degree of snap. It's great to see Torontonian Stuart Li contributing a Basic Soul Unit treatment of “Stay” to the release, and even more so when his hard-driving version stomps with such mighty conviction. Li's lately been the recipient of ample critical praise, and the energized acid-techno treatment he brings to Hinter's track shows that the high regard with which his work is held is warranted.October 2013