Paxton Fettel - The Secret Ingredient Is Crime (Apersonal)



I suppose it's been just under a year ago now when we met a certain Mr. Fettel. We were doing an in-store mix session thingy at a local shop and these two funny fellows wandered in and we got to chatting. They said they were fans of the label and one of them mentioned they had just signed an EP with Spanish outfit Apersonal - 'that we might know of'. Of course the label rang bells with me immediately, as one of the first tunes I picked up after we started this little venture was a certain Trujillo record entitled 'Baby You're Still The Same' with an awesome Mark E remix. Fast forward to recently - when the record in question Paxton mentioned that day hit the streets! 'The Secret Ingredient Is Crime' is a lovely record featuring three original tunes that all vary quite nicely to add to the collect-a-bility of the 12''; plus none other than Jimpster was lured on board as well to do a remix of the title track. Tasty stuff indeed.

Not having a slew of productions under his belt as of yet, the young danish producer is nonetheless getting interrogated by loads of excellent labels these days. He's cut his teeth with a couple of releases on UK imprint Greta Cottage Workshop - where he's got two outstanding ltd and hand-sprayed 12''s of twisted, deephouse and downbeat tracks in '13 and '14 as well, one of which made our #1 favourite tracks of last year, We Can Change If We Want To.

But back to the current release in question. Things get rolling on the A side with 'She's Alright' along with the Jimpster cut. I'm personally a bit more partial to the original tune to be perfectly frank. Slightly less electronic sounding, more serene and instrumental. This is deep house at it's best, ideal building tracks that lay the foundation perfectly in the early hours for a rocking night on the dancefloor. Sipping drinks and getting the old feet moving, hips shaking and heads nodding. A familiar vocal sample busts in at the halfway point too, that really sets things off nicely - a combo we witnessed first hand a few weeks ago in a club setting. Jimpster does a fantastic job on remix duties too, there's no question. A slightly more tough sound and stronger snare and kick, same tune essentially but perhaps with a bit more cahones, if you will. Loads of heads will lean towards his remix, of course - I mean c'mon after all, it's Jimpster we're on about here.

 

On the flip we're treated to 'Sundown, As The Beat Gently Skips', a carefully arranged set of vocal sounds and string melodies arranged masterfully alongside very light kick and snaredrums, creating such a blissful mood. First thoughts that come to mind are 'where's the beach?' and 'where's the beach?'. Finally, the topper for the copper is 'Tripped Out', possibly my pick of the litter. Paxton drops the tempo significantly for this one and spaces things out just the way we like. A couple of sets of morphed-out and twisted keys and vocals float in and out the track between filters, as the dry male vocal finally dominates in the last third of the cut at the breakdown. Just beautifully curated and arranged, absolutely 100% killer stuff.

Be on the lookout for more by Mr. Fettel on Greta Cottage Workshop, as well as a few other labels that if you've been reading these pages in the past couple of years - you'll recognize immediately. Meanwhile grab this excellent record asap, Juno is out but looks like Redeye has copies HERE.

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