[Long Island Electrical Systems]

Simone Vescovo has had an incredibly productive few years. The Italian DJ and producer has quietly been turning out vintage-sounding analog house under the Simoncino moniker for a variety of respected labels, scoring some notable releases for Mathematics, Echovolt, Skylax, and an impressive long player on Thug Records. His love of classic Chicago and Detroit house has always been worn on his sleeve, and it’s a sound that he has repeatedly done, but done well. His Dreams EP for Ron Morelli’s L.I.E.S. imprint, although at times showing some flair, fails to stand up alongside much of his other work.

Title track, “Dreams,” is a wash of floaty, ethereal strings and reciprocal pads, with a warm-as-buttered-toast bass line driving along the spare Roland percussion. It seems to succumb to its own nature though, with many of the elements coming across as too vapid to give any serious emotion to the track. “Mystic Motion” is another Simoncino track in the vein of the Jungle Wonz classic “The Jungle,” something he has done before (and better) on “Jungle Dream” from his Beat The Street EP and on the remake of another Jungle Wonz classic, “Time Marches On” from The Warrior Dance Part 2 EP. It’s impossible not to compare the merits of these other tracks when they sound so similar and the earlier ones were executed with much more conviction. “On A Journey” goes some way to adding shine to the EP, the low-slung bass line fitting snugly between the cool pads and bright slashes of strings. Normally a Martin Luther King speech in a track would have me cuing up its successor, but here it sounds almost in its rightful place. “Enigma” is very much a companion piece to the opening track, and though it is possessed of a more kinetic groove, it still lacks the polish of previous Simoncino efforts. You will hear a lot worse EPs in this style by other producers this year, but then I’d wager that you’ll also hear a lot better from Simoncino.