DaM-Funk’s Off-Beat Architecture on Saft

Ya didn’t see this coming. Saft has a knack for getting under my skin in the best sense of the phrase: I have no idea what’s coming next but I’m pretty sure I’ll dig it anyway. Patrick, who runs the label from the Canary Islands, is like that guy at your high school that had a haircut like John Bender, photocopied Buzzcocks flyers on his wall and always a line on the records that everyone else would be crazy about a year or two later.

The name “DaM-Funk” virtually assures everyone will be paying attention to this one here and now, but for an off-beat project, he sure picked the right outlet. Architecture is a showcase of spacey beats and mental synths, pitched down low and hiding under the rafters after it plants a bomb on your dance floor. The titles are descriptive: “Break Out” is ambient house or funked-up Techno, with rosy synths beaming you in from the central galactic core. “Hazy Stomp” is sleazy electrofunk and “Your House” is a blend of the two.