The Saints & Sonnets label run by Jimmy Posters and Huxley is really picking up pace in 2013. In the wake of strong efforts from Annie Errez and JammHot, the label turns to the red-hot talents of Shenoda for its next EP. The London producer crafts everything from chunky deep house to well swung garage for labels like Hypercolour and Fear of Flying and here serves up three more tracks of precision cut 4/4. Opener ‘I Feel’ is a bouncy affair with globular bass daubs underpinning slinky, sexy hi hats and a typically well appointed vocal sample. Some thin strings stream in the background of it all and the breakdown marks a point of real tension – nothing is out of place when the thing kicks again. ‘Love Thing’ picks up the pace with more slivery and silvery percussion recall a 90s garage heyday. This is
not pastiche, though, because Shenoda pairs it with another attitude riddled bassline that sinks and slumps like an aloof teenager. The track’s one finger played melody phrase is full of a cheeky joy, light yet alluring as it is. Finally, ‘Suntrap’ gets a bit more loosed limbed with smeared dub techno chords freewheeling over wooden hits and a corrugated bottom end. As ever with Shenoda, the arrangement is stuffed with neon colour, bristling with kinetic energy and adds up to some of the most inviting contemporary house you will find anywhere. Saints & Sonnets, then, is ever more a buy on sight outlet for modern house that pays homage to nothing but its artists’ own unique and refreshing ideals.