DRED City Family - V A (DRED Records)

Title: DRED City Family

Artist: V/A

Label: DRED Records

Cat Number: DREDLP002

Genre: Deep House

1: Viadukt – Ena Cosovic & Josefine Hellstrom

2: Night Lawn Stars – Tasoko

3: Transitory Experience – John Osborn

4: Da capo – Matthias Vogt

5: Ultima Thule – Circular Rhythms

6: Magic Stone – Frazer Campbell

7: Treasure Discovered – Tim Xavier

8: Crave – Reformed Society

9: Desire – Tom Dicicco

10: Magnetic Fields – Jor-El

11: System 10 – SVT

12: Same Dream – Madder Modes

Listen to John Osborn’s DJ sets and if they have one defining characteristic it’s flow. There’s both a depth and tranquility about them which takes the listener on the proverbial without sacrificing an implicit grooviness and subtlety. There are occasional forays into what feels like the more familiar, but nothing dominates. And the realization kicks in that it’s all part of a grand plan to entrance and hypnotise, brought to fruition by drawing the listener in with recognizable motifs and then dissipating them into mutant forms which function above and beyond the obvious. There is a good range on this collection, from the depth and drive of the label boss’s ‘Transitory Experience’, to the bleeps and bass of ‘Ultima Thule’, the dub techno of ‘Magnetic Fields’, the transcendent bounce of ‘System 10’ and the Relief-tinged trackiness of ‘Same Dream’.  It’s a consistently brilliant collection of mesmerising, machine-funk tinged deep house which cements the labels sonic identity.