Peggy Gou

Review: Peggy Gou has had a busy debut year thanks to her opener on Phonica's white offshoot, and now two EP's out on Rekids in quick succession. Her sound is a subtle, minimalistic blend of house and techno, exactly the sort of tech-minded groovers that have appeared on Radio Slave's label in the past. "Jen High", for instance, takes a dusty being of drums and wraps them around delicate blends of chimes, whereas "When Round, They Go" heads deeper into space with the help of a sublimely cosmic swarm of sonics. The special piece comes from Terekke's remix of the latter, and the LIES man adds his signature touch to an already very deep house tune, making his version that one toke over the line!

Review: Rekids' first 12" of 2016 comes from a previously untapped talent, Berlin-based producer Peggy Gou. The South Korea-born DJ/producer's sound has been influenced, in part at least, by that of her mentors and piano tutors Nu Guinea (a duo whose releases for Early Sounds have been superb). Certainly, you can hear their tropical take on deep house in opener "Troop", whose Afro-influenced beats combine brilliantly with Gou's humid melodies and beautiful chords. She flips the script slightly on "In Sum", where spacey, Detroit-influenced electronics envelop a snappy deep house rhythm. A fine debut EP is brought to a close by Galcher Lustwerk's remix of "Troop", which takes the track further towards Detroit techno territory via deep space electronics and cymbal-heavy beats.

Review: Berlin-based Korean Peggy Gou has been surprisingly quiet since first bursting onto the scene back in 2016. Here, she returns to action having graduated from Technicolour to parent label Ninja Tune. Many may already have heard EP standout "It Makes You Forget (Itgehane)", a percussively ambidextrous beast based around a bouncy, off-skilter, snare-heavy rhythm track. It has been much discussed online after Gou included it her recent Resident Advisor podcast. On the B-side you'll find tracks representative of her developing style, which draws together elements of European deep house, electro, early '90s U.S house, the rubbery disco eccentricity of Maurice Fulton and the instinctive polyrhythms more often found in traditional African music.

Review: The reach of not-for-profit label Needs continues to impress as they link up with Peggy Gou and Juju & Jordash in a collaboration with UN Women for an expertly curated 12" of interstellar sonics strapped to a 4/4 beat. Gou is on typically strident form on "Shero," presenting her keen instinct for 90s house and more fluttering, psychotropic tones distilled into dancefloor manna as intriguing as it is easy on the ears. Juju & Jordash meanwhile channel their own learned approach to live jam improvisation into a true trance-out of strafing arpeggios and spongy FX for the trip-out crew to get lost in.