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: We're barely a quarter of the way through the year and it already seems like Peggy Gou is going to be one of house music's heroes of 2018. Here, the Berlin-based South Korean follows-up her brilliant Once EP on Ninja Tune (which included the soon-to-be-an-anthem brilliance of "It Makes You Forget") with a new 12" for Phonica White (a label she first graced back in 2016). "Travelling Without Arriving" is a rubbery, sun-kissed deep house treat rich in elastic bass, toasty chords, glassy-eyed synthesizer melodies and dreamy, drifting electronics. On the flipside, Brooklyn beat-maker GE-OLOGY serves up a superb alternative version which retains the track's gentle positivity and breezy melodiousness while dragging it further towards futurist techno territory.

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.