After critically-acclaimed releases on well-established labels such as Pont Neuf, Shall Not Fade and Strctr, Parisian artist Tour-Maubourg enters French label Noire & Blanche with yet another outstanding EP titled ‘Floating On Silence’.
‘Longing For U’ opens up the EP in a beautiful way: Complex drum rhythms are accompanied by smooth instrumentation which enters the track slowly, almost as if the instrumentalists were shy and had to gather their courage – until the saxophone takes over and plays a buoyant solo just before the 4 minutes mark.
‘I Wanna’ is centered around a swung jazz drum beat and sleek bassline played by a double bass while various playful synthesizer melodies join the track here and there and some vocal bits can be heard in the far distance.
While the first two tracks have an almost loungey character, track no. 3, ‘Nite People’, gently invites us to the dancefloor. As the four-to-the-floor kick, swung hi-hats and pointy snares unequivocally tell us to shake our hips, the rest of the ‘house band’ take it a bit more slowly – until the 303-style acid synth comes in and shouts “all right, let’s dance!” and the whole track kicks it up a notch.
The title track, ‘Floating On Silence’ represents exactly what made many of us love the music by Tour-Maubourg: It’s super soulful and sexy, with lovely jazzy melodies and an irresistible groove created by the interplay of drums, bass and percussion, foremost the driving conga rhythm. All in all, a very elegant yet dancefloor-ready deep house track.
Out of all tracks on the EP, ‘Mighty Groove’ is definitely the funkiest one. A palm-muted electric guitar, groovy synth stabs, deep bass line and earworm-inducing lead synth have a get together and the drums and percussion glue everything neatly together to round-off this artful EP by Tour-Maubourg.
Tour-Maubourg – ‘Floating On Silence’ EP [N&B009] available June 24 digitally.
