- Euphoric house for big moments.
- Leonid Lipelis, along with peers like Mori Ra, borrows from a massive trove of music for his out-there edits. The Moscow-based artist has leaned heavily on Soviet-era disco obscurities on previous releases, but he digs far beyond his immediate surroundings. He's a record freak whose interests extend to Brazilian boogie, house, disco, new age and whatever else he can get his hands on, constantly making versions for the dance floor, which he sometimes releases. While he's perhaps best known for oddball edits like his unreleased take on Lata Ramasar's "Hiway Xpress" and his Lipelis Edits 12-inch, he's also carved out his own sound over the past five years or so. On Bordeaux Lovin, Lipelis goes far beyond obscure edits, unleashing two euphoric house bangers.
"Bordeaux Loving" comes out the box like an uncoiled spring, its wound-up drums made up of tight loops and delayed snares. A call-and-response vocal starts. Robotic male and female voices sing "lovin'" back and forth. That's then followed by a loved-up major chord piano progression. It's an unabashedly huge peak-time house banger, the hands-in-the-air moment Lipelis has been working towards on his releases as TMO. "What Is It" follows suit, built around a few descending, bittersweet piano chords. Where "Bordeaux Lovin" mixes in subtle UK influences, "What Is It" has a New York house feel, underlined by a generous, Boyd Jarvis-reminiscent piano solo. It's ample proof that Lipelis should be taken seriously not just as a record digger, but as an artist in his own right.
TracklistA Bordeaux Lovin
B What Is It?