The Relate EP is what could be described as machine soul, and caught us in the same way as Seven Davis Jr, Ph0t0machine and Kyle Hall. The four-track release from Stefan Ringer aka REKchampa marks the fourth for The Love Below, a sister project of the somethinksounds imprint. Where previous releases on TLB were small collections of edits from various artists including Ossie, Seven Davis Jr and Ph0t0machine, Stefan Ringer takes centre stage with a good old fashioned original EP.
Under his alias REKchampa, a host of releases have made Stefan known for the deep, soulful qualities he manages to entice from his productions. Here he continues in the same vein with a harder grittier edge yet still keeping the depth typified by the first track ‘Lust’. It carries a real tech bass feel, leading nicely onto ‘MUYM’, a slower shuffling number reminding us of that remarkable collab with Osunlade, Theo Parrish, Rick Wilhite. The remix by KZR takes it to darker corners of the circuit board whilst ‘First’ rounds up with an interesting mix of head nodding beats and up tempo house interludes, alongside purple baselines and echoing electric guitar.
The Relate EP is out on 8th December and can be found on the somethinksounds Bandcamp.
