Channel X - X-Files

It could be said that tech house isn’t quite the best format for a long-player. But who really gives a fuck when it’s this darn sexy?
 
German duo Channel X are a resolutely underground outfit who excel at creating saucy, jacking grooves, and deserve far more credit than they’ve been given. Hopefully this new album will go some way to changing that – and kicking off with the incendiary Monday, it’s hard to see otherwise. The track shuffles and gallops with clean and crisp sounds and wonky, pulsing sub bass bending, with strings, piano scales and horn blasts all adding subtly to the tension and atmosphere. The simple female vocal is excellent; seductive, powerful and a bit druggy, but without being cliched.
 
The way they weave an intricate groove together is amazing. So subtle, with so many delicate little sounds dropping in and out of each track. It’s almost subconscious the way that it gets inside your head and makes you wiggle – if you break a track into its constituent parts, it’s hard to tell exactly what was making you jack so very hard.
 
Behind The Mirror goes for bouncy off-beat swing, stomping all over your head and slipping in an Erykah Badu sample as a cheeky bonus – but Marvel is keen to show a deeper, spookier side to the duo. Likewise Spooky Lights shows them in a smoother, seductive but no less engrossing or dancefloor-friendly mood. Bonus track Ghost Stories also exudes summery vibes, while the rest of the album is very much wonky, jacking, snappy and sassy, with big womps of sub bass pitching up and down and all over the place.
 
I love the fact that they aren’t ones to submit to trends. Instead of going all housey-disco-loopy like the rest of the bloody world, they’ve stuck to their guns and continue to occupy that middle ground that takes some of the warmth and jack of house and blends it with techy sounds and beats. And for that we salute them.