You already know if a Defected extended mix is for you, and Stamina is a good one. LEYO and Thierry Ganz turn in a piano-and-bassline house cut built for the long haul, which the seven-minute runtime makes clear from the jump. This is proper daytime-terrace house: a rolling groove, a vocal chopped into a mantra, and a piano riff that shows up at the halfway mark and lifts the whole thing into the sky. Defected have a formula and it’s a good formula, and Stamina hits every beat of it without feeling lazy about it. The bassline has a lovely round warmth that a lot of house forgets to include while it’s busy chasing the hook. I put it on to answer emails and answered zero emails. That’s the test for this kind of track: does it make an ordinary afternoon feel like the good part of a holiday? This one does. Ibiza in a file, no flight required.
January
Chrome Daydream
Chrome stars, jelly hearts and holographic colour. A nod to the glossy, optimistic graphics of the early web.