[Stilove4music]

Jerome Derradji’s off-shoot label from Still Music continues to hit all the right buttons for lovers of pure unadulterated house, adding German duo Trickski to their list of contributors with number nineteen in the “Lost Jams” series. Yannick Labbé and Daniel Becker have certainly done their homework for this release, crafting two stunning tracks steeped in the feeling of Chicago and Detroit house that are made all the more impressive considering their regular musical ethos. Check one of their Sonar Kollektiv releases over the past few years and you’ll find a mechanical edge to their music, an almost robotic brashness when stacked up against the two cuts they proffer here on “Lost Jams.” These two tracks, collected on anonymous blacked out vinyl, evoke such a feeling of classic house you’ll be scratching your head asking yourself where you’ve heard them before, pondering whether the vocals are culled from some dusty old half forgotten track from the murky reaches of another time. In that sense what we’re dealing with here is undoubtedly derivative, but then the whole purpose of Stilove4music is to collate such classic sounding records suffused with the heritage to which they pay tribute.

Jungle noises form a backdrop to “Track 1”; crickets and frogs chirp and croak at a subdued level while a sense of soul is built up gradually with teased out orchestral hits, vocal stabs, and what sounds like a bamboo flute. Trickski drop a graceful, breezy female vocal about half way through the track that will have you pining for it to come back as soon as its over. I can’t fault the track because it creates that perfect basement, red light feeling, but I can’t help but wish they’d developed the vocals further, adding another verse or two, perhaps even just toying with parts of what was already there. Even more of a straight up house cut, “Track 2” is created from the austere beginnings of a solid kick/hi-hat/clap combo and continues to grow with archetypal elements of Rhodesy chords, taut high wire strings and subtly evolving key progressions. The two-line male vocal that eventually appears is filled with a familiarity I can neither shake, nor put my finger on. It could just be, of course, that Trickski have studied their house formulas so well they’ve administered a near flawless example of it on this exemplary label.