Sharwarma House EP reviews
All good in the hood, Sharwarma House is a hit with the press. Read some of the reviews here:
Resident Advisor:
by Stephen Worthy
When you share an EP with other artists, do producers get extra competitive? Do they rush to the download charts to see how they are selling—and then, perhaps, send malicious tweets to their rivals? In the case of the Shawarma EP, there appears to be a clear winner.
O.P.T’s “Street” is an odd little record—part soul jazz noodling, part bludgeoning, old school New Yawk house which almost threatens to submerge it, such is its ferocity. Samuel André Madsen’s “Synthony” carries an emotional heft, courtesy of its twinkling synth coda, effervescent snare hiss and squelchy bass, but is just that tad too linear. Which means the gold medal, bouquet of flowers and a kiss from mum goes to Muff Deep’s “Lost Soul.” Listen carefully and you’ll hear proper vinyl record crackles but its primary winning tenets are its firing, discordant tom-toms and snares, which get EQed to within an inch of their lives. That it teases you by threatening to blast through the roof at any moment, although just about keeps its reserve, is part of its charm.
http://www.residentadvisor.net/forum-read.aspx?id=204668
SpecialHousinAssociation
by Lee Marvin
For my debut SHA review I guess it’s only fitting I review a debut single! The opening track on the EP put together by Tartelet, a Danish based label in Copenhagen, is from new kid on the block going under the name of ‘O.P.T’ who is described by Tartelet as ‘Young, mysterious & straight out of nowhere’. Well, if this is the standard we’ll be hearing from future O.P.T tracks it will not be long before the straight of nowhere is replaced with everywhere! His debut track ‘Street’ is aptly named as, excuse the pun, its right up my street. The intro caught my attention the minute I pressed play, the subtle airy opening chords are followed up with a stabbing raw kick drum which really took me by surprise, by this point I was hooked. Just when I thought O.P.T had dealt his full hand, 2 minutes in the key change is followed by a superbly added offbeat Jazz keyboard and guitar lick sample which takes the track on whole new journey. If you like your Detroit sounding house then this is for you, it’s very well produced and there is enough to keep you on your toes for the entire 5 minutes. This is definitely going straight into my bag of tricks and getting unleashed on a big sound system very soon. O.P.T – Remember the name.
The second track, ‘Lost Soul’ by Muff Deep who actually wanted to go under the name of ‘Scissor Sisters’ when they first formed but unfortunately was beaten by some flamboyant pop group over the pond in NYC, is a deeper number then the opening track, which for me was a shame, I was feeling all summered up and then suddenly pulled back to reality by this dark melodic number. The track is brought to life with haunting vocal loops and long synth breaks and once I got over my summer madness mood and accepted the darkness for 5 minutes I got into the vibe of the track and could see this going down well early doors in clubs and bars.
OK, onto the last track which is produced by ‘Samuel Andrel Madsen’ and titled ‘Synthony’. Once again like O.P.T’s intro this tapped into my imagination straight away. It opens with a nice dripping syth affect with an almost angelic harp sound over the top. A nice big dirty electronic baseline then echoes around my head phones and the kick drum starts pounding, so far so good. 4 minutes in and I anticipate that dirty baseline kicking back in but sadly it never. After a promising start the track for me becomes a little too repetitive as to the vocal loop. I could however see this being played during a nice sunrise or sunset; it would suit the mood perfectly. This has the makings of a great track but needs to get out of first gear.
Final thoughts, by far O.P.T’s ‘Street’ is the stand out track and worth paying extra pennies to get this on vinyl purely for this alone. There is something for everyone though, jackin summer beats, dark and melodic in the middle ending on a nostalgia feeling track at the end. As you can probably tell I am really looking forward to sourcing future O.P.T tracks.
http://specialhousinassociation.com/various-artists-sharwarma-house-ep-tartelet-records