[Philpot]

Accompanying the recent flood of nostalgia for the salad days of house music has been a return to the original tools which furnished the first wave. Cassy, Ben Klock and Prosumer/Murat Tepeli are a few producers who have harnessed the sound and abilities of 808s and 909s while doing more than treading water stylistically; their tunes are their own, not rehashes. Dresden-based producer Sebastian Lohse, better known as Break SL, has also avoided the easy pitfalls. He’s also maintained a good deal of space between releases to ensure high quality control. His Philpot-released debut, “Trombone,” turned heads in 2007; now “Laguna Seca,” his follow up for the same label, is sure to do the same.

Lohse’s fondness for vintage sounds is tempered by a decidedly modern outlook some have compared to Detroit’s Omar-S. However, tunes like the synth string-led title track and strummed B side “Robur” remind me more of Theo Parrish. “Laguna Seca” stretches keystroke-triggered strings across staccato synth stabs, a front and center bass riff and effuse pads — a truly entrancing combination. More tied to the dance floor is the brief but no less potent “Be Strong,” whose huffing and puffing progression is kept nimble by fleet-footed percussion, cracked open by a slicing, slowly decaying synth lead and the vocal sample warning, “You are now about to witness….” Break SL proves a truly adroit producer in his use of digital guitar strums (on “Robur”) — usually quite corny sounding — which smear beautifully on the heads of snapping drums and meld seamlessly with the gradually unwinding, syncopated synth line which moves to the forefront. Closing the EP is a majestic set bookend, “Witness,” which fills the air with broad strokes of hazy, bittersweet melodies, only clave flecks and muted kicks still clinging to the dance floor. For only releasing his second record, Break SL’s arrangements and deft usage of vintage gear show real promise. Here’s to the past staying firmly in the rear view mirror.