UPFRONTBEATS

The freshest house label out there welcomes the legendary COEO to the fold with a fantastic new EP full of firing club cuts that start 2016 in real style. COEO are German pair Florian Vietz and Andreas Höpfl and together they have released on labels like Let’s Play House, Madhouse and many more.

Says the label, ‘COEO are to Toy Tonics what Masters at Work were to the house scene of the 90s: they bring the soul!’ That is certainly true on the five tracks here, all of which bottle up influences from DJ Sneak, Dimitri from Paris and Little Louie into classically inclined and party starting jams that are sure to become big hits. Included on the vinyl EP is ‘Native Riddim’ which was a massive track last year and started at Number 1 in the Traxsource charts for many weeks and got support from the likes of Laurent Garner and Tensnake.

Opening in fun and playful style, ‘Back In The Days’ is run through with warm and humid chords, trilling melodies and organic, woody drums that will get any house party started. Spoken word snippets add an old school New York feel and it gets the EP off to a real start. ‘Jugendstil’ is slower, more lazy and broken in its jumbled grooves and jazzed up key work.

‘+++’ is a lovably loose and vibe fuelled affair. Tooting chords, undulating drums and colourful string stabs all add up to a seriously lush and rich house tune full of authentic soul. The brilliant ‘Humbled’ marries filtered chords and cute diva vocals with romantic trumpets and rubbery kicks in a way that really gets under your skin. Vinyl bonus track ‘Native Riddim’ still sounds as fresh and essential as it did last year, with its free falling toms, swinging handclaps and proper house grooves.

House music never sounded more real and alive than in the hands of this talented pair.

• FB: facebook.com/COEO
• Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/coeo
• Beatport: beatport.com/artist/coeo