Ital – ‘Workshop 18’ EP [Workshop]

Now over twenty releases deep (counting remixes, a limited 7″ and a collection compilation), the Workshop label have a perfect track record for doing a quality plate. Offerings from Move D, Kassem Mosse and Madteo are some of the favourites in my collection, with the Berlin based label somehow coaxing out consistently deep sounds from already top-shelf producers. Something about releasing on Workshop brings out the best in the artists.

Step up then Ital aka Daniel Martin-McCormick for Workshop 18 – a three track EP that pushes the producer in to deeper club territory than we’ve heard him venture in to for a while. All the praise for Workshop above goes for Ital as well. Since 2011 he’s done nothing but release some of the most interesting house music in recent memory; certainly two of our top LPs for 2012 were Hive Mind and Dream On, both of which he released via Planet Mu and both of which continue to be played out pretty heavily. If you’ve any doubt that his not one of the most uniquely talented guys in the scene, make sure you rock down to one of his live shows and prepare to be blown away.

At around eight minutes each, the tracks are given that room to breathe, and consequently the listener given the time to get proper heady in the mix. Despite Ital’s more minimal sound approach to this EP, the signs of beautifully complex structuring and his ability to layer tracks to emphasise the right parts of the music like no one else is still evident. All three cuts individually are a return to the vinyl-house-haze that namelessly moves darkened club floors on the regular, also working as a complete EP. Look for this across Phonica parties and early mornings after festivals.

On a related note we’re all waiting patiently for the Ital & Hieroglyphic Being collaboration set to drop any day now, a project they’ve called Interplanetary Prophets. There’s also rumblings of an Ital imprint debuting sometime this year; definitely something to look forward to.

Check out two of the tracks from Workshop 18 below. The hand-stamped wax comes packaged in a nifty record-mailer type sleeve, though no press release kicking about, not that one’s necessary. If you’re not swayed by the possibilities of Workshop and Ital coming together then just listen to the tracks, as the music definitely writes it’s own on this one.