SHAN Schallplatten & CDs

Review: Frankfurt producer Shan has enjoyed a long and productive friendship with Running Back Gerd Janson. To date, it has included a swathe of collaborative tracks and remixes, as well as regular solo releases on the label. Shan's latest EP for the imprint is naturally packed with playable material. Saucer-eyed, retro-futurist opener "Who Run Tings", for example, underpins jaunty, Inner City style stabs and piano riffs with corking, hip-house style breakbeats, while "Awakenings" offers a slightly more muscular, big room-friendly take on the turn-of-the-'90s piano house blueprint. Shan deviates further from the script on the Nu Groove style vintage deep house musicality of "English Summer" and deep '80s synth-pop-meets-deep house flex of closer "Take Me To The Top".

Review: Few are better at saucer-eyed, rave revivalism than Victor Shan. He's made a habit of successfully doffing a cap to the early '90s, primarily via collaborations with Tuff City Kids and the booming Chord Memories 12" on Running Back. Here he's at it again, kicking off with a "Piano Mix" of "Work It" that sounds like a long lost collaboration between Inner City and Tyree Cooper. There's a more flustered, UK hardcore feel about "Bassline Party", even if it does contain a classic Chicago house bassline and a swinging, boompty style groove. Flip for a ghetto style "Miami Mix" of work it, plus a couple of handy DJ tools (the hip-house-goes-rave groove of the "Rave Beats" version being particularly potent).