We first learned about the Atlanta-based producer Stefan Ringer just about this time last year, when his CGI Records mix “Hold the Phone” came out. This week, Ringer teams up with the label again, but this time as Black Suede, delivering his Inner Monologue EP . As a producer, Stefan crafts sparse and minimal tech house, and while he easily moves between these genres and their off-shoots, the signature of his sound is a highly refined sonic sensibility, coupled with gritty, funk oriented rhythms.
The EP’s opener, “Connect Like 2 Ways“, is the most house oriented cut here, as well as the collection’s rousing star. Sublimating a classic Chicago sound into it’s nimble, sweaty grooves, and playing with a jumbled but still infectious female vocal sample, heat throbs of organ move this number with a subtle, but undeniable insistence. “Stimulus (Dead)“, on the other hand, is more monochromatic by nature, loosing some of the former’s trademark house elements, and replacing them with a starker brand of bass driven techno–while Ringer asks, “what is it that makes you tick/what is it that makes you breathe”.
Heady, existential concerns are left behind on the EP’s next cut, “7713GH“, as Black Suede returns to juke days on this dirty slab of booty house that features a rough kick drum pounding sure to leave you hurting for more. Finally, except for a remixed version of “Connect Like 2 Ways” that can be found on the EP download, Inner Monologue closes with the appropriately solipsistic track “Purgatory“, running robotic, driving bass drum over itchy snares, while Ringer mulls neurotic, dead-end concerns like, “what’s wrong with me”…before asking that inner voice right back, “what’s wrong with you?”.
