Elegante

Squarehead has become such a regular playing around Sheffield and the UK over the past two years it's easy to forget that he is only 19 years old. With releases on several labels already behind him and tracks getting played on prime time shows on Radio 1 by the likes of Skream and Toddla T, his understanding of the nuances of house music surpasses most of those 20 years his senior who were there the first time around. His new 12" double A-Side is being released as the first vinyl for new Sheffield label 5andseven and is a perfect showcase for his style - warm, subtle and swaggering in equal measure.

Opener 'Elegante' commences with the smart kind of vocal work you expect these days from Squarehead over filtered 909 kicks and jacking percussion, before being undercut dramatically with a subtly out-of-key bass that changes the mood and makes the introduction of woozy analogue pads at the drop all the better. Like many of the man's productions, this is deceptive, sounding like simple music until you think about what's going on and realise how rich it is, with layer upon layer of rhythm and melody evolving constantly rather than dropping in an obvious way.

'Now is Good' continues in a similar vein, the whole track hanging around vocals carefully chopped up and applied rhythmically, hypnotically overlapping as the tune develops. This one has another raw sounding bass line sitting under all the playful melodic elements, appropriately carrying an echo of LFO and seminal Warp Records tracks amongst more obvious influences from London and Chicago.

This is an incredibly mature release that will hopefully confirm to the rest of the UK what we in Sheffield already know - that Squarehead will go on to be one of the most talented producers in the current resurgence of UK house music. Go grab it.