Soul System EP

Dan Curtin needs little introduction. A Cleveland-born, Berlin-based producer who cut his teeth in the early-nineties Detroit circuit, he has spent the best part of three decades releasing house and techno for the likes of Peacefrog, Planet E and his own Metamorphic imprint. Soul System is his debut for Sound of Berlin (SOB003), a two-track EP that finds the veteran doing what he does best: coaxing maximum movement from minimum materials.

Title track Soul System is the record’s heart, a six-and-a-half-minute deep-groove hybrid that sits happily between house and techno. A warm, round bassline rolls beneath a four-to-the-floor kick, whilst dusty chords and the occasional jazzy stab add a funkiness that recalls his Detroit years. It’s the sound of a producer whose restraint is second nature—every layer earns its place, and the groove is left to do the heavy lifting.

The real talking point, though, is Body Flap Position, which builds its hypnotic pulse around a sample of NASA astronauts docking at the International Space Station. It shouldn’t work—mission-control chatter and deep techno are an odd pairing on paper—but Curtin folds the transmissions into the rhythm so deftly that the dialogue becomes another percussive element, orbiting a filtered, chordal core that grows steadily more insistent across its six minutes.

Soul System is a concise, assured statement from a producer who has nothing left to prove and, refreshingly, behaves that way. It’s not a reinvention—that was never the point—but the EP is further proof that Curtin’s deep-groove sound remains as vital now as it was three decades ago, and the NASA-sampling centrepiece gives it a playful twist that few veterans would dare. A welcome addition to Sound of Berlin’s young catalogue, and a reminder that experience, in the right hands, is a serious weapon.