Garrett David doesn’t rush. He never has. Even back in his Smartbar years – 19 years old, holding down the Queen! nights alongside Derrick Carter, Michael Serafini, Frankie Knuckles, and Chez Damier – his approach was measured, elegant, never in a hurry to prove what was already obvious: that his ear for groove was different. A decade at Gramaphone Records gave him the archive, the tools, the lineage. Berlin gave him a wider frame. Now “Nu-Relix” arrives as his first full-length EP in two years, the 13th release on Butter Side Up, and it feels like a homecoming and a progression all at once.
The release follows 2023’s “Gary’s Dreamland” on his own Global Swing imprint – a record that cemented his signature blend of Chicago discipline and Berlin fluidity – and comes just weeks after his “Zenzitiv Mix” of Ohm Hourani’s “Calling Me Crazy” on O.Bee’s Jigit label. It also marks the follow-up to John Manhard’s “Weekend At Raymond’s Place”, which landed on Butter Side Up last year, adding another carefully cut gem to the label’s steadily growing discography.
Opener “Play2Win” is all teeth and shadow, peak-time tension coiled tight. A commanding “get down” vocal slices through a web of tightly programmed percussion and low-end pressure, locking the floor into its stride. There’s a teasing minimalism in how the elements are introduced – each sound deliberate, every shift perfectly timed. A grainy, rising synth tone loops like a warning siren, while sharp hats and a rolling bassline keep the energy at a constant simmer. It’s the kind of track that doesn’t just fill the space – it directs it, holding dancers in suspense until Garrett decides to tip the balance.
“Grow Up” shifts the scene without losing the poise. A breezier ’90s US House spirit slips through deep chords and nuanced jazzy elements, warm pads and patient percussion building into a groove that doesn’t chase the floor so much as guide it. There’s a melodic sensibility here that Garrett has made his signature: subtle, surefooted, and quietly memorable.
The B-side deepens. “Livin’ Under Clouds (Zenzitiv Dub)” is aquatic hypnosis – ebb-and-flow rhythms and melodic fragments dissolving into reverb. Vocals partly buried in the background underline the summer-late-evening feel, like hearing a rooftop party echo through an open window on a warm night. It’s a spell cast slowly, dissolving tension in patient waves.
Closer “Subaqua” keeps the water theme but dives into its deeper currents. A driving, chunky bassline anchors shimmering high-end details that flare like sunlight filtering through the surface. Its submerged euphoria feels like the natural resolution to the EP’s journey: the taut, shadowy control of “Play2Win” now fully exhaled, its energy diffused into liquid freedom.
With “Nu-Relix”, Garrett David reminds us why his name carries weight. Four tracks, each deliberate, each steeped in history but alive in the present. A set that begins with precision and ends in release – Chicago roots, Berlin reach, and grooves that move in their own perfect time.
Words by Holger Breuer
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