DOGE001 Stamping a dog face onto an unlabelled record is the ultimate piss-take on the anonymous white label trend, but DOGE001 isn't quite what it seems. For one, there's deep house carved into its grooves, not the usual pounding techno we associate with the form (nor anything that could be conceived as a joke). But more importantly, it's actually decent. Whoever is behind the record—new or old, one or many—they've produced anything but a gimmick.



DOGE001 begins with a track called "Organ House," which is about as plain as its title. There's a vocal snippet, some perky percussion and a lolling organ at the centre of it all. It's a simple track, but the jacking drum programming raises it an inch above being merely formulaic. "Cold Summer Nights" and its walking bassline offer a nervier take on the same vocal-and-organ recipe, only this time there's some tasteful keyboard playing and an addictive swing to the snares. "Get Up," a pure drum workout, isn't much more than a whole lot of percussive sounds hastily thrown together, which could be great or terrible depending on your outlook—but the way each bar ends with an exaggerated thwack is hard to resist either way. The EP closes with its best track, "A Way With Her," a heady jam with blinding glissando synths and a downbeat bassline. It sounds like something Fred P might play at peak time.

Published /

Sun / 1 Jun 2014

Words /

Andrew Ryce

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Tracklist /

01. Organ House

02. Cold Summer Nights

03. Get Up

04. A Way With Her

