[Unthank]

Estonian newcomer Bakey Ustl may have dropped his debut release a little too late in 2010 to really figure in any best-of lists, but that doesn’t diminish the strength of his stunning EP for Firecracker’s new off-shoot, Unthank. Delving into the imagination-rich clear 10″ vinyl, it is apparent Ustl is influenced by Messers Parrish and Dixon Jr., though rather than make half-baked imitations of their grainy, raw productions, he takes the ideologies of red-lit Detroit house and injects them with his own psychedelic spirit of discovery.

If you haven’t already heard “A Tender Places” played out then you’ve been missing out on one of the most sure-fire dance floor slayers in some time. Playing around with a melange of samples, Ustl builds on a solid base of familiar house themes, but it’s when the unconventional breakdown begins that the track really heats up. Sounding almost like the needle wiping the record after a couple of jump-cut drum breaks, the tracks slams back in to gear with a carnal call to the dance floor. With this much sexed-up energy I doubt anyone could resist that demand to stomp your feet and clap your hands, regardless of the orgiastic consequences.

On the flipside “Nose Candy” both soothes and causes unease with its warm embrace of organ pads and saber-cut steel noise, but underpinning the sample-heavy, hallucinatory track are dense layers of fuzzy house through a filter of 8mm film footage of 1970’s New York. The jarring, prickly nature of “Heroin” hides within its short length a throbbing, narcotic funk that bubbles up though the surface of its lysergic backdrop. Judging by the ideas contained within these three tracks we’ll be hearing a lot more from Bakey Ustl this year and if his subsequent releases even close to this brilliant debut, his name will certainly figure among next year’s best.