Cantoma - Talva Lumi (Highwood Recordings)

I got a fresh batch of wax in earlier this week, but work has been a total bitch so it was just sitting there untouched for days. It's finally sunday though, the sun is out, wafts of fresh coffee and homemade brownies are coming my way and I just ripped open the box. Quite a few bits of highly anticipated (and now sold out) bits of house in there on Moonrise Hill, FHUO and Ken Oath, so I totally forgot I ordered Cantoma's 'Talva Lumi' on Higwood Recordings. 

I've always been a sucker for the Balearic/Adriatic side of the electronic music spectrum and Phil Mison's output as Cantoma rarely disappoints, so I chucked his new one into the basket without bothering with the snips. Now this can sometimes be a recipe for disappointment - I blindly ordered the most recent record on Church, which is a bit of a dud for example - but the fourth release on Highwood is so good its been keeping all those house burners off the decks.



Test Pressing's 'Apiento and LX kick things off with a remix of Talva Lumi, which they themselves dubbed as 'breakbeats for the disco', which sums things up perfectly. Rolling drums, swirling pads, sexy Flamenco lines, Glockenspiel, fiddles, the works. Absolutely massive, can't get enough of it. Next up on the A is the 'instrumental' version. Not that there's any wailing divas anywhere near Apiento's rub, mind you, it's a slightly less frantic, altogether smoother affair. Reverso 68 makes an appearance on the flip with a remix of 'Just Landed', which is nice enough, if a little formulaic, while Cantoma tries his hand at proto-boogie of sorts. The B is not a patch on the balearic badassery that's provided on the A. Highly recommended.

Limited to 450 copies, nicely numbered by hand on the back of a lovely full-colour sleeve.

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