In the spirit of reintroducing music lovers & DJs to EPs which they may have perhaps passed by, CHIWAX CLASSIC EDITION bring Dana Kelly’s Alpha EP to a whole new audience, showcasing four tracks of timelessly excellent Deep House originally released on Sugardish Recordings in 1999. Sadly Dana passed away back in 2013 aged only 48, but there’s no doubt that his name will remain in the light, with new fans discovering his work both in his own name and his DKMA alias.
The opener, Thesis, is up there with some of the most subterranean-deep house you can ever wish to hear. From the opening kicks, which essentially act almost like sub-bass, the flow of the track is pure deep heaven. The bassline melts into the beats, the claps are kept on a low key, the pads nestle in the background & the bleepy synth clips are also kept low on the EQ side. The use of opening and closing filters on some of the percussive sounds gives added movement to the vibe too, creating an overall perfect warm-up/after-hours groove.
House Down takes the vibe up a notch, with crisp hats, warm pads, neat vox clips and organ stabs all working fantastically together. Again the use of phasing and filters through the track means the percussion occasionally veers into a spacey hollow sound, with fuzzy synths and acid lines all combining to create a brilliant club-ready vibe.Â
Moving onto Hell Ya!, we move up another gear, punchy percussion is greeted with low stabs, deep bass and a lively synth workout as the track progresses. Tidily placed vocal snips make themselves known at certain points in the track, Â but don’t ever take over, allowing the vibe itself to remain front and centre. Fans of labels such as Guidance, Peacefrog etc will adore this, there is so much joy and warmth floating from the speakers. Â
We’re back into incredibly deep territory for the closing track, Sirens, which revolves around another insanely low-end kick, bass so low it’s in the room downstairs and freaky stabs and synths giving this track a very 5am feeling. It’s incredibly woozy, wonderfully sleazy and never strays too far from its bass/percussion/weird stabs theme, which is just the right way to do it, when the beats are this good.
This EP could quite easily be brand new – it’s not retro, it’s not forward-thinking, it’s simply perfectly executed Deep House for clubs where the crowd and DJs are into the “real” stuff. A wonderful EP and a great showcase of Dana’s work to a new audience.
Dana Kelley’s Alpha EP is out on CHIWAX CLASSIC EDITION.
Words by Al Bradley
Torture the Artist 