Kool Vibe: House Trax Vol 1 EP (KV Records)

I like to imagine that there’s a single apartment block in Paris where people like Brawther, Jef K., Jeremy Underground Paris and Kool Vibe live, work and carry on like actors in an underground reality TV show. Which is of course how some envision Chicago.

You can add to the cast list above but you can’t strike the name Kool Vibe from the program. The French producer hasn’t released a single track that I didn’t love, and the four song EP simply called House Trax Vol 1 is just oozing with the classic garagey sound I’ve come to rely on. “U Got Me” starts off how a person recording live might – jacking beats, short vocal clips bubbling out of the either, that serpentine bassline coiling around and a three word vocal sample dunning you with the subtlety of a punch to the back of the neck. All of this poetry is to try to convince you that out of the 100 to 200 records someone is going to slap up against your windshield this month, this is one that you owe yourself as a DJ and a music lover to check out.

“Music Sets Me Free” and “House Music” seem less about songs than moods – it’s the kind of unapologetically joyful tracks made for dancers and party people rather than a breed of fans best described as a pair of eyes in the dark staring at Boiler Room sets. There’s a sense of exhilaration and even playfulness from A2 to the run out.

Beyond everything else I could say, beyond a pseudo-poetic description of hooks and samples and pads, the greatest compliment I can pay to House Trax and all of KV’s music is that it’s just an indescribable pleasure to listen to it.