This release from Jack Eject (yeh, I don’t know either) is the fourth release from excellent UK label Drifted. The Kids Klub EP serves up four tracks of lean, no-fat tech house, but before you move on to the next review, let’s remember that there are good records in every genre and that tech house in the ’90s was a wonderful, free and funky genre. That’s kind of what you’re getting here: heavy duty, funky basslines, stripped, taut house beats, a whiff of that cool, detached Detroit musical sensibility and a helping of Chicago jack: it’s like the best of ’90s-style tech house but re-tooled for the 21st century.
The title track is a fast-paced and slick production equipped with classic-house drums and austere strings, underpinned by a propulsive bassline just on the right side of over-busy which is so perfectly in the pocket that it drives the whole thing along as smoothly as a shark through water. “Rebirth” is built around a synth riff that happily recalls Booka Shade & M.A.N.D.Y.’s sleek, streamlined mid-2000s monster “Body Language” while “3.24AM” is all about the bubbling square wave b-line and shuffling house percussion combo.
The final tune is a Rob Amboule remix of “Rebirth” where he adds a pair of fluffy pad chords and produces a remix that to my ears has a similar sense of space, depth and impact as classic mid-’90s London house like Silverlining’s ’94 “Pearl Divers.”
It’s all proper underground, dance-floor targeted stuff: a DJ’s EP.
Jack Eject: Kids Klub EP (Drifted / 12″ Vinyl / October 2022)
A1. Jack Eject: “Kids Klub” (5:24)
A2. Jack Eject: “Rebirth” (6:09)
B1. Jack Eject: “3.24AM” (5:24)
B2. Jack Eject: “Rebirth” (Rob Amboule remix) (6:44)
⚪️ Disclosure Statement: This record was not submitted as a promo.
