Smallville regular Christopher Rau delivers his fourth long player and third for the label, ‘Better Times’.
Since 2008, Christopher Rau has been delivering his raw, machine driven twist on house and techno, regularly on Smallville, Giegling, Mule Musiq, Pampa and many others. Garnering a reputation as one of the finest purveyors of underground, gritty dancefloor focused jams.
Across the eight track project, Rau delivers a range of House styles traversing through jazzy to jacking, deep and more. Opener ‘Better Times’ sets the tone with floating keys, a bouncy bass groove and crisp drums before ‘On The Dancefloor’ utilises airy chords, organ tones and a saturated rhythm section. Next up is the ‘Still Working Mix’, a fresh interpretation of Rau’s classic ‘Ne Travaillez Jamais’, taking the essence of the original and twisting it into a more loop led, choppy version. ‘Shibboleth’ then leans into deeper house realms via an arpeggio bass hook, slowly unfurling pads and dubby chord flutters.
Opening the C-Side, ‘Burning Snake’ embraces a classic deep house aesthetic with cinematic pads, bumby stab-led bass hits and a drum machine workout. Next up Rau teams up with marimba and vibraphonist Taiko Saito for ‘Thank You’ fusing Christopher’s raw percussive style and hazy keys with Saito’s dynamic live instrumentalism. ‘IGTF’ then strips things back to crunchy shuffled drums, a hypnotic vocal loop and bumpy bass line before ‘Evin’ concludes the release, again leaning into more classic house realms with a wandering bass line, shimmering key sequences and a heavily swung drum groove.
The ‘Better Times’ LP is out on Smallville Records from October 18th, 2024. Pre order here.
