Artists & Title: Ark & Pit Spector – Call of The Horns
Label: Thema Records
Catalogue#: THEMA035
Date: 2013
Format: 12″ Vinyl
Country: //
Tracklist:
Credits:
He’s been in the game for 15 years now, and throughout Ark has proven he’s not one to spread himself thinly. Leading up to 2010’s Arkuarium on THEMA, he had released a string of collaborations that wandered enthusiastically and whose experimentalism culminated on that record. Apart from a few celebrated remixes since then, Ark has been busy in the studio crafting a new batch of focused heat, mostly alongside his brother Pit Spector, himself a respected producer and DJ known from associations with Circus Company and Minibar. As we finish exploring a heavier sound with our well received Re:Vision Series, the sophisticated deep house tracks on Ark and Pit Spector’s new Call of the Horns EP announce a new direction for the artists and a direction we seek to illuminate as we define the different shades of the spectrum at THEMA.
Continuing with this metaphor, opener Wrong Way certainly makes use of the many colors of deep house music. There’s the yearning, faraway vocal, the spacey piano chords, the dusky-voiced monologue, and the funky bass, but it is all delicately interwoven with dense layers of ambient sound and effected, sweeping pads. Like its title, Velours moves in a sexier swing with nearly-nonverbal vocals moaning against liquid pads and a chugging, organic rhythm executed with extra, slinky details that get more frantic as it moves along. The disco-sampling, discofied feel of Clark Kent finds the producers thriving in the witty kind of groovy house Ark has played with so much before. They wait until the very last bar to reveal Clark Kent’s true identity, but until then it’s a rollicking, wacky ride filled with squealing synthesizers, slap bass-style licks, and chirpy vocal samples. They Ruff again looks to its own title with a firmer stomp in the rhythm section that contrasts their continued use of subtle production touches. The breakdown is unusual, unexpected, and downright dirty, and with the interlude reprise of BKorizon that closes, it brings the EP to a strongly assured finish.
Here at THEMA, we’re once again happy to be reunited with old friends, and the feel-good dancefloor vibes from Ark and Pit Spector warmly confirm this camaraderie with all of its history and detail. As a statement of intent and a revelation of a partnership, Call of the Horns signals both commencement and continuation of a bright future for THEMA and this duo.
Text by: Albert Freeman
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