Vakula: Saturday EP

Battered by market forces at both ends, most House records are getting smaller. The money to pay vocalists ain't always there - in some ways, we've gone backwards from a form of capitalism to the barter system as vocalists and producers exchange services to try to float the next big smash on sagging credit and chutzpah.

Going against the grain is Ukrainian producer Vakula, whose Saturday EP astounded vinyl afficionados upon release in the Spring and which is finally available in digital form this week.

I first heard Vakula from his release on Uzuri back in 2008; having his music out on vinyl seems to be a dealbreaker with him so depending on where you buy your music and what form it comes in, this might be the first time you've heard him. Few introductions are needed other than the music itself, which is melodic, jazzy and spirited Deep House. But this time there's a twist: the entire EP it seems - all of the stringed instruments, certainly the pianos and some if not all of the drums - were recorded in sessions with live musicians.

I've heard too many keyboard players who can't play and singers that can't sing to jump out of my seat about it, but dammit, this whole EP sounds so good that I'm pounding down the koolaid too. It's pretty surreal to find myself writing about a record for a music magazine and harping on about the "rarity" of musicianship, but you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone and this EP brought home how far gone it really is.

There's a warm atmosphere to this that you find in the best of Mark de Clive-Lowe's more Deep House releases - objectively, listen to "Touch" and the instruments are singing in a way you rarely hear on a House record. Focus on the bass line: you hear not mistakes but variations which, intentional or accidental make for a far more interesting track than 4 notes recorded once on a SalSoul record 30 years ago and sampled into oblivion. This is what John Morales referred to in my interview back in April about the glorious days of disco:

These tracks go from 118 bpms to 123 to 115 all within the same song, because these cats were really playing. They moved with the vibe and weren't worried about trying to keep perfect time. Some of the songs wouldn't work and wouldn't be what they are if they worried about keeping perfect time.

Of course, live musicianship isn't a dead art and there's plenty of stuff vaguely Neo-Soul-ish that deploys squads of real people with real instruments that are really playing. The difference is that this one really, really kicks. This is really Deep House. The melodies are sweet, there's a jazzy vibe to the whole affair but this isn't Neo-Soul, R&B or Africanism. I can guarantee people will notice the difference when you play this, but it's strictly because of the quality, not because it sounds out-of-sorts when it's dropped in the middle of your set.

Most of all, though, I'm not happy to hear someone in House Music do something with live instruments again; I'm happy to hear them do something else. Ripping off Masters at Work and Larry Heard has been a cottage industry for too many years, though I suppose President Obama should give them a tax break for keeping so many conga players gainfully employed. So for someone to make forward-moving Deep House with both soul and bite - that reassembles and restructures the jazzy Deep House of the '90s without playing it back through an echo chamber - is a reason to support. The fact that it's a great record is a better one.

[ - Review by Terry Matthew / July 2011 - ]

Available: This is the 6th release from 3rd Strike records, formed by the same happy fella who runs Nu Disco label Under The Shade. Released on vinyl back in the Spring, it's available digitally starting July 11, 2011 exclusively from Juno Download.com.

Vakula: Touch

Vakula: Gospel Keyboards

Vakula: Saturday