- Consistency is the key to Sam Watts' ever-growing rep for devastating dance floor artillery. Fresh from being the only thing worth the entrance fee on Erick Morillo's otherwise woeful Sympho Nympho Subliminal mix, the Brighton house fiend carves the name of another top label onto his bedhead with the bowel re-arranging "Regrets We Have No Use For."
Watts' Hypercolour debut uses a tried-and-tested moody house music formula of 808 claps, a sullen, almost disinterested vocal (from Name One) and bass keys seemingly summoned up from the depths of the earth's core. But oh what a sound the latter makes—it's like a bucket of frogs emptied out into an orchestra full of bellowing tubas.
Matthew Herbert doesn't agree to remixes for just anyone, indicating the power of Maxxi Soundsystem's lead cut. Herbert's take eschews the original's rampant bass attack—he's wise enough to leave that battle well alone—replacing it with a coiled spring of a synth line, blurring it at the edges and snapping it to 8-bit flourishes and a fizzy, galloping rhythm. Although even this slightly eccentric, typically Herbertine take on house music trails in the wake of the aural juggernaut that is the original.
Tracklist A Regrets We Have No Use For
B Regrets We Have No Use For (Matthew Herbert remix)