Not many promos come with a manifesto attached. The one sheet with Shonky's Le Velour EP opens with the pronunciamento that "we are at the dawn of a new era" - one which this release presumably heralds. Let me quote from it here:

We are at the dawn of a new era. The US underground-secluded house has lately aroused growing interest and the European minimal house is evolving into a more conventional genre. Those two distinct forms of house music, opposed until this day, are about to collide. The Parisian label Real Tone Records has been leading a passionate struggle to take over the drifting US house form. One might say the fruit of their 7-year labour has exceeded their expectations.

It's not clear if the label wrote this or someone else did, as both the above paragraph and a Q&A with Shonky and Franck Roger of Real Tone are reproduced verbatim on Traxsource. Neither is attributed. But including it in the package implies that the label at least agrees with a manifesto that takes at face value the fact that suddenly, a lot of minimal producers have decided that they'd like to call what they do "Deep House", despite "Deep House" already describing something that's really quite different from what they do.

You might start wondering if there's a bit of the Emperor's New Clothes going on here. I certainly do. I don't believe minimal is evolving into "a more conventional genre" - I believe its leading lights have simply been burned by the empty chic of the European scene, propelled by the Ibiza hype machine and the questionable tactic of letting "fashion" set the tone for "art" rather than vice versa. If their conversion to a less trendy impulse - if they're making music they like rather than what they think will wind up at the top slot of a Beatport daisychain - I'm all for it. Call me jaded or crotchety, but I don't buy it.

This is way beyond what a record review is supposed to get into (and one I've touched on more in this review of Steven Tang's Relapse EP last week). And the funny thing is that I like this release, or at least the Franck Roger remixes. It's a strong track and it's getting widespread acceptance, even if it's not the revolutionary sound that such revolutionary words would herald.

"Easy d'Or" has a really nice groove - it's basically the sort of track that you could get at in the middle of a set, transitioning from one mood to another. That's nice but not really revolutionary. Like "Le Velour", "Easy d'Or" sounds rather half-formed, incomplete and, quite frankly, a little boring. It also doesn't benefit from the expert remixing of Franck Roger as the title track does. Roger's touches on "Le Velour" beyond the usual remixing job and make this a whole new track - or, rather, three completed versions of the original.

On their merits, I heartily recommend FR's remixes - they're lovely tracks that deserve widespread exposure by genre-jumping DJs. The original mixes, not so much. [ - Terry Matthew / December 2010 - ]

Available: online at Juno Download.

Preview:

Shonky - Le Velour (Franck Roger Late Nite Dub) EXTRACT by djfranckroger

Shonky - Le Velour (Franck Roger Cosmic Version) EXTRACT by djfranckroger

+	Track Listing	Duration	Recommended
01:	Shonky: Le Velour (Original Mix)	7:06
02:	Shonky: Easy d'Or	7:17
03:	Shonky: Le Velour (FR Cosmic Version)	8:24
04:	Shonky: Le Velour (FR Cosmic Dub)	6:45
05:	Shonky: Le Velour (FR Late Nite Dub)	7:14