“Deep” is a heavily abused and misused epithet in contemporary house and techno music; the truth is that very few artists deserve their work to be described as such. Patrice Scott is one of them.
Detroit native Scott has been DJing since the ’80s, when he first fell under the spell of such giants as Larry Heard, Derrick May, Ron Hardy and Juan Atkins. He began producing solo records under his own name much later, in the mid-2000s, and since then his releases have come slowly but steadily – about two 12″s a year – each one proving to be well worth the wait. In simple terms his music fuses the warmth and groove of Chicago house with the yearning future-soul abstraction of Motor City techno, but this synthesis alone is hardly enough to account for the distinctive charm and dynamism of what he creates.
One thing’s for sure: Scott aspires in his music to moods and states beyond the everyday, and the titles of his records (‘Atmospheric Emotions’ ‘Beyond Deep’, ‘Analog Dreams’…) appear to underline this. Listen to ‘Distance Against Time’, and the exquisite tension that he sets up between the unstoppable forward momentum of his percussion and his rueful, yearning string-pads and keyboard runs; this is music of uncommon elegance, certainly, but also of tremendous feeling.
The vast majority of Scott’s output has been issued on his own Sistrum label, which also provides a home for 12″s by like minds such as Mike Edge, XDB, Keith Worthy and Anton Zap – check The Aphotic Segments, a compilation spread across two 12″s in 2011 and ’12, for a fine overview of the Sistrum sound. Upcoming releases include the Frocks EP by Scott and XDB, due out in March and a Scott solo EP in May; Scott also contributes a remix to Motor City Drum Ensemble’s upcoming Raw Cuts #6 12″. You can also catch him in the flesh on the following dates:
March 10 – Monkey Bar, Barcelona
March 30 – Fabric, London
March 31 – Poland
April 7 – Panorama Bar, Berlin
April 20 – Club Air, Tokyo
April 21 – Japan TBC
May 4 – London TBC
June 12 – Rexclub, Paris
July 12 – Freerotation festival, UK
Sept 4 – Dimensions festival, Croatia
Like his productions, Scott’s invariably vinyl-only DJ sets are things of tremendous poise: at once hypnotic and high-velocity, ruthlessly pared-down and generously melodic; constructed to lock down the body and liberate the mind. We’re pleased to say that the exhilarating FACT mix 370 is no exception.
