- Cinematic house.
- It's great when the crowd reacts well to an unreleased track. It's even better when it's in the company of an esteemed label head. DJ Tennis, AKA Manfredi Romano, reportedly made "Gordon" and "Starck" one December morning in Miami, then tested them during his back-to-back set with Gerd Janson at Rakastella Festival later that day. This might go some way in explaining the EP's unlaboured feel and buoyant tone, but that's not to say it's simplistic. The title track shuffles along on a relentless, catchy chord pattern until a euphoric key change, the first of a few, turns it into something special. More subdued but just as slippery, "Starck" (named after the fabled Dallas nightclub) shares "Gordon"'s stuttering synth and mercurial character.
The alternative edits that speak to Romano's background—he scored film soundtracks, theatre installations and commercials in Italy before he started producing dance music—are even more interesting. "Gordon (Atmo Version)" and "Starck (Cinema Version)" are, respectively, more melancholic and dreamier than the originals, thanks to foreboding fuzz and spacey gusts of reverb, but the dance floor always remains in the frame. At times offbeat, these tracks embody the range of emotion Romano has always been able to elicit as a DJ.
TracklistA1 Gordon
A2 Gordon (Atmo Version)
B1 Starck
B2 Starck (Cinema Version)