DJ Alex Corton – Vinyl Reviews

Good Looking Records

Vandera / Dave Owen – Anandamide / Deep Breathin 

2013

   On we go with the white label series on the Good Looking label. Two more artists today make their debut. We only have about three weeks of 12” singles left to review on Good Looking. But do not worry. There are some albums and the 20 EP’s still ahead of us along with a few side projects. More than enough to maintain the flying flag of the label. 

   Jasper van der Aart is Holland’s first artist to hit the Good Looking Records (if I rightly remember). While he is not as prolific these days with releases, he had a few out on Fokus Recordings. The write up about him on his Facebook and Discogs page makes him out to be some mad ‘Dr. Emmet Brown’ style of potion scientist during the daytime and a musical agitator of all things sound, drugs and mind altercations, by night. This probably goes someway to explaining why he titled this tune ‘Anandamide’. Well, Anandamide is the Sanskrit word for joy, bliss and or delight. It is the result of a chemical reaction through fatty enzymes in a body which release a feeling of relaxation or ease. Apparently it was only discovered in 1992 which was not far from the things going into my body and producing some euphoria, during that year. Uh-hum.

    ‘Anandamide’ is one of those tunes that when I first heard it, I got some serious chills. It rolled out nice, clear cut amens for a start which had been missing in a lot of the music released around 2012 and 2013. This sank the ruff neck teeth in with its rain of electronic sounds and smears of bass, and it just rolls. The little trumpet bursts and the trance like breakdown, really spun a sleek and refreshing web on Good Looking, among a lot of similar, cookie cutter tracks in liquid. This is definitely in my top 5 tunes on the White Label series. 

   You may also have been aware that there was a blue vinyl release by Joy Orbison called ‘Hypf Mngo’ remixed by Vandera (its labelled a drum and bass remix but he’s credited), which sounded very similar to today’s release. I didn’t get that one, but it’s basically the same percussion. ‘Anandamide’ is a little corker of a tune though. One of the last on the label to really give it some welly on the amens anyway. 

   On Side AA is a guy who I also bumped into at Plush back in 2013 in Austin city centre. I still remember chatting with Dave Owen about the town of Newbury in Berkshire as I lived just down the road in Basingstoke. He had a connection with Newbury (he or parents, I can’t remember), which was pretty unexpected coming from a guy from Indianapolis. And there we were nattering in a nightclub in Texas! Dave had been rolling out tunes for over ten years, from 2009, up until around 2020. I’m not sure if he’s just DJing now or hunkered in a studio somewhere. I did see him on quite a few flyers after 2020. He is another really top guy and solid behind the decks. 

   Here we have ‘Deep Breathin’ smoking out the shackled resins then wafting in the smooth vapors of bliss, cooling the soul. There is a viscous movement between the arrangement of this piece, settling the layers and compacting the final result with a vintage twist to a modern style. Dave really pushed a chilled, piano tinged liquid groove out here. One for the smokers corner. Oooosh.

   Massive respect to Dave, and fingers crossed you get back to Austin again soon. Respects!

   Onwards we travel. Forward bound. 

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