Hamburg’s specialists for the deeper shades of house, Smallville Records, present the debut of newly-formed superband L’Amour Fou. ‘Dujuan‘ EP is the collective work of David Moufang aka Move D, Benoit Bouquin and Taipei-based Marco Wollenberg, no less. With so much production power, knowledge and history behind the machines, the expectations are set.
Kicking off with ‘Sunday Haze‘ we set sail onto the spheres of late millennial house and the minimalist conception of sound that comes with it. Slow and never getting too juiced up, this solid track will have you yearning for emotions. A rather austere sketch, it is deep house in its purest form, drawing directly from the classic tropes of the genre. The vocal samples sound like far away announcements sieved across greasy loud speakers: not the siren calling you to come to the dancefloor, but a call to close your eyes and forget the people dancing around you.
Flip the record and L’Amour Fou present themselves under a more complex light, richer in textures and arrangements. Title-track ‘Dujuan‘ offers a brisk take on melodies. It starts off on the shores of the ocean, before the melody starts to spiral along a sturdy bass line. That’s when the hi-hats come along and complement the groove nicely as minimalist synths intertwine themselves into a groovy leitmotif.
Featuring ’80s guitar riffs ‘The Last Call‘ is actually the most interesting track of the whole EP; its whole approach tilting towards a more atomised soundscape. Almost ambient, it pulls the strings of an immediate epiphany. Dujuan is not a surprise nor is it a revolution. Instead it offers the kind of well-crafted and beautiful spins on deep house we’ve been waiting for quite some time, whilst the genre seems to have reached a through as of late. Let’s see if L’amour Fou remains a short-term affair or will pop up again, but one thing’s sure, this one will easily satisfy all lovers of deep, introspective grooves.
Dujuan is out now on Smallville Records, order a copy from Bandcamp.
A1 Sunday Haze
B1 Dujuan
B2 The Last Call
Discover more about L’Amour Fou and Smallville Records on Inverted Audio.