Interestingly, to us at least, our first encounter with Fort Romeau was back in 2013 and his remix of Gold Panda – Community. It was from this point onwards that Michael Greene aka Fort Romeau became a permanent fixture in our listening habits. In 2016 alone he has delivered the imperious Secrets & Lies EP – a record we recently grabbed on the repress. And just last week he unveiled Korgs via his own ‘DJ Mag – Best of British’ nominated Cin Cin label.

Fort Romeau is a master at deep synth led House Music and it was with much anticipation that we clicked play on his second Gold Panda remix…

Yesterday Nathan Fake Degreelessness had us instantly intrigued within the first few bars, before going on to emphatically deliver on its initial promise. A trick 90% of club records these days fail to achieve. Typically the first 30 seconds of most House music is a glorified DJ tool, 16 bars designed to facilitate mixing as apposed to auditory satisfaction. Whilst this is not necessarily always a bad thing, it can lead to many DJ sets sounding very generic and devoid of nuance. You can’t help but think that modern day DJs often lack the dexterity and creativity of their mid 80’s forbears. Back then as House was emerging from Disco the idea was to loop and extend, like Hip Hop, the break, or in layman’s terms the best bit. However as time has passed it feels as though that concept has been so overly exploited that what initially made House Music so thrilling has been somewhat lost in the process. Today DJs are often far too safe, and the producers supplying them equally so.

Now having said all this, you’re probably thinking that this record opens with the most mad of intro’s. It doesn’t. But what it does do is provide a level of musical interest, like Nathan Fake yesterday, that goes from initial intrigue to concluding satisfaction. However there is still an element of safety in the overall arrangement and we just wonder if House music in general needs a bit of a shake up? You may disagree…

Gold Panda – Time Eater – Fort Romeau Remix

Fort Romeau – Essential Mix

Gold Panda – Half Of Where You Live