10 Years Hive Audio, Pt. 2
Various Artists - 10 Years Hive Audio, Pt. 2 // Drinking to their tenth year in the game, Hive Audio enter 2022 with a celebratory compilation triptych featuring some of the finest names in the house and techno scenes. Taking the reins for the series' second instalment, a septet of the Swiss club affiliates and long-time friends headline the comp including Booka Shade, Einmusik, Edu Imbernon, Definition and Natascha Polké, Niconé & Dirty Doering, Nico Morano and Vanita. Pulling out their trademark engineering of athletic Tech House and subs-charged, aqueous sleekness, Booka Shade show the uninitiated how it's done true-school-style with the heat-conducting "Regatta da Zatta". A blazing tapestry of synth-heavy lushness and clinical programming, tailored for nothing but whipping up ravers into a frenzy. Definition & Natascha Polké pick up the torch with the deeper descending, melancholic flow of "Haunted" - a cold-at-heart sonic tableau enticing us on the path of nostalgia through delicately textured paths and darker meanderings. Edu Imbernon dishes out a further propulsive blend of Italo-laced arpeggios, ominous deep-end thread and big-room churn on a brainwashing, trance-friendly tip, perfect to get everyone wading in their own sweat from peak-time to extended party action throughout the day. Nico Morano's contribution "Adior" grinds elements of typical Latin suavity alongside feverish keyboard talk a la Moroder and newbeat-informed programming, ushering us in its own continuum of befogged hi-tech solitude. Funky to the bone, Niconé & Dirty Doering "Kill All My..." trades the velocity of the previous for a low-slung, nu-discoid swagger that blows the winds of ultimate hedonism across the dance floor. Last but not least, Vanita's bespoke freewheeling closer "Anxietatem" pulls off the perfect mix of rolling, tsunami-like dynamism and painstaking textural arrangements. [Hive Audio Dark - HA121]