Tom Dicicco‘s debut ep, Material Things draws a connection with Baud‘s sole other artist, Roger23, and his mentors, Swayzak.  This three-tracker from the young Englishman, which includes a Patrick Graeser remix of the title work and closer “Empire”, is a tough, slinkier affair that sits in that dusky area between dub techno and deeper tech house.

The build on “Material Things” culminates on the other side of four minutes into its almost 8-minute run with little more than the expected shuffle step after a very quick break, but it works.  The tension is in the lightning-in-fog dub chords and insistent, muffled kick.  While darker, sexier dancefloors will love the pacing, the stripped-down approach of the track puts it more in the transitional camp than peak-time floorfiller.

The Patrick Graeser mix attempts to bulk up the original for a more mainstream dancefloor position.  Percussion elements are more pronounced and the filtered delays are pushed up to provide more of an obvious swing than Dicicco’s mix.  The subtlety and slink of the original are sacrificed, and unfortunately the mix doesn’t progress beyond usage as a dj tool.

“Empire” is the track of the release for me.  Coming in around 5 minutes in length, its build progresses smoothly towards the groove and a wonderfully fluttering synth chord that drops in just after the two-minute mark.  Dicicco pulls back the snares around half-way through for a break that might go on a touch too long for anything other than the latest of late-night crowds, before the whole thing reconnects and closes out the final two minutes in a wonderfully hazy dub-house swing that would have the Swayzak guys considering other extreme sports in South American countries.