Top-drawer house from San Francisco’s Joshua on Prescription’s Balance offshoot in 1996. There’s a rawness and intensity to this cut that really set it apart from a lot of mid-90s deep stuff: the huge buzzing synths feed back into giant walls of echo; the tough, stripped-back beats are punctuated with bold 16th-note kick drum fills; and the bassline periodically escapes the bottom octaves to dance across the lower-mid register. There’s something resolutely ‘analogue’ about it, and a real sense of someone pushing a handful of bits of basic gear to the limit while keeping warmth and harmony to the fore. They really don’t make ’em like this any more…
Nothin' But Magic 