At Least We Can Dance

By: Dekata Project
Label: Doshiwa
Written by: Matty O
Rating: 8/10

Re-recruiting the reassuring yet forthright Yvette Riby-Williams from the previous Viral EP to usher you into your armchair and pour you an end-of-the-day glass of reward, Sam Sharp and Zed Bias high-five on a toe-tapping house glow, full of pressure-easing key feathers, chord wisps and relaxed bass that bound into neo-soul and remove the fug. No problem if it’s a mite unseasonal, it’s a cool and clement, super-cosy house groove that will easily keep until the next promise of summer rolls around, and until then has snuggling properties on its side that can be easily teased out.

Sharp & Bias bring together an eclectic remix roster to thoroughly disprove that remixing soul should be like for like and shouldn’t creep too far outside its remit. From pleasant breezes to the other end of the thermometer, Nu:Tone drops a sinuous drum & bass cascade, shaped by polar synth points that will have clubbers feeling the nip of winter flicking at ears as the title is used as significant instruction.

Replaying the chord arrangement and adding broken beat/UK funky fizz and clip-clop, Rinse FM’s Roska injects up close and personal understanding with a little bit of back-bite, upping Riby-Williams as an engaging enigma. A two-way street that, more practically than you may think, encourages you to come closer before swiftly telling you to keep your distance at the same time. Welcoming, yet clinically edged.

Also featuring a pair of online-only exclusives, Hint, manned with perkily tribal chord blocks, conjures up a kind of funk-house voodoo that doesn’t leave you feeling suspicious of its intentions and encourages you take in the fumes from his cooking pot. Offset by a central, grandly effective synth snaggletooth for the dancefloor, it’s another victorious interpretation that grooms opposing sections into a valuable whole. With a swirly hypno-funker turned '80s keyboard dash, Ike Synton makes it four from four in being another not to leave the vocal wanting. In a world of synthesized colour it’s a high quality electro-house crystal apex that from its keyboard use sounds all look-at-me, but is never so self-indulgent.