Marshall Watson: Do Want What You
Loöq Records

A decade on from his Highpoint LowLife days, Marshall Watson continues to put out quality music. Not surprisingly, though, the style of the material he's currently creating—at least insofar as Do Want What You might be seen as representative of it—is more club-focused than the more electronica-styled material he released on that now-defunct Sheffield imprint. Watson, who presently holds the position of Music Director at Sirius Sound, indulges his love for underground dance music when DJing, which he does at places like the Eclipse Salon in the San Francisco Bay area, and in his musical productions.

The new release pairs two strong originals by Watson with two remixes of the half-hour EP's title cut by Issac and Mark Slee. The EP's primary cut, “Do Want What You” oozes a sultry club vibe, one whose warm flow Watson atmospherically bolsters with the patter of people's voices, acoustic piano textures, and the purr of a recurring vocal accent. The music swings for nine minutes with a sensuality that suggests Deep House might be the most accurate label to affix to it, even if there's a trippy synth-heavy dimension that indicates Chillwave's an undeniable part of the mix. In a treatment nicely tailored for the wee hours, Slee's late-night “Low Slung” version hews to the spirit of Watson's original while beefing up its funky bass pulse. Embellished with claps and ride cymbal showers, Issac's treatment recasts it as a frothy house banger whose techno-tinged groove chugs with single-minded determination. At EP's end, “Time Light” brings the Chillwave connection to the forefront in an eight-minute twilight escapade aswirl with dizzying synth sparkle and an overall resplendent aura of dreaminess.

August-September 2014