[Phonica Recordings]

Record shops housing their own record labels is becoming increasingly common. Clone, Kompakt and Smallville immediately spring to mind, as do the many stamped records that come out of Hardwax. London vinyl haven Phonica has long been the destination of choice for Soho crate-diggers in search of quality house and techno, so it was perhaps only a matter of time before the store stocked its shelves with its own records. However, London lacks a distinct house or techno sound like Hamburg or Cologne have, instead priding itself on giving rise to a new sub-genre of syncopated dance music every six months or so. Phonica’s stock is hardly relegated to a single aesthetic either. As such, it’s difficult to anticipate what each transmission from the newly minted label will sound like. The first release from Hector & Bryant featured a genre-bending remix from Appleblim and Al Tourettes, while PHONICA002 from JC Freaks dabbled in pale minimal house. It seems fair to wonder, what’s next?

Phonica’s third release comes from Matt Tolfrey and D. Ramirez, two respected if rarely mentioned tech-house producers whose solo releases for Leftroom and Crosstown Rebels (Tolfrey) and Four:Twenty, Toolroom and Azuli (Ramirez) don’t venture far from that sound on “Bounce to Me.” Suitably elastic to earn its title and studded with a variety of vocal snippets and crafty horn samples, its enough to ensure a room full of bodies won’t yet come to rest. Home listeners, however, may wonder where the appeal lies in its status quo movements. Aside from extra snare hits, Amsterdam’s Lauhaus stays true to original’s sound in his remix, instead reworking the arrangements to swing a bit harder and stop and start. Phonica isn’t pushing boundaries or even offering something particularly memorable with “Bounce to Me,” continuing a downwards slope following the label’s promising start. It seems odd for an entity with the taste-making cred of Phonica to settle for merely functional and forgettable tracks when their heft should warrant much better. Whether they’re repaying favors or just asleep at the wheel, here’s hoping their future releases pull away from this conservative bent.