I’d drop this one in a set tonight without a second thought. Bruno Furlan makes tech house with a Brazilian swing most of the genre’s grid-locked producers simply can’t fake, and “Overdrive” rolls on one of those basslines that leans a fraction ahead of the beat and keeps tugging you forward by the collar. Toolroom put out a lot of functional peak-time tools, and this one clears that bar with room to spare: there’s real groove in it, more than the competent kick and vocal loop most of these tools settle for. The bassline is the whole star, fat and elastic, doing a little syncopated skip that keeps everything feeling loose even at full tilt. Halfway through it strips right back to the drums and that bass alone, and you realise how much work those two elements are doing by themselves. It’s understated the way the best tech house always is, nothing flashy, everything locked in. The rare track I’d trust at genuinely any point in a set.
January
Chrome Daydream
Chrome stars, jelly hearts and holographic colour. A nod to the glossy, optimistic graphics of the early web.