TuneLab
Derrick Carter Soulful House
Boiler Room x Ballantine's True Music: Hybrid Sounds Sao Paulo
When Derrick Carter steps up for a 'Soulful House' set in São Paulo, we know we're in for a history lesson delivered with impeccable sass and swing, a reminder that funk is a feeling before it's a genre. The Ballantine's True Music vibe is intimate and warm, all dim lights and smiling faces riding a timeless groove. Carter's technique is effortless, holding a steady 125.4 BPM pulse and weaving predominantly through the soulful key of 12A, with forays into 3B and 5A for emotional color.
The mixing is loopy and percussive, emphasizing the low-end thump (0.8115 avg) and letting classic drum patterns speak for themselves. His track selection is a masterful dig: Wookie's 'Live On' is a sublime, bass-heavy UK garage opener, while Armand's 'Taken In' is a deep, jazzy house cut for the heads. The surprises are what make it – a cheeky, filtered drop of Childish Gambino's 'This Is America' and a funk-dub version of Cardi B's 'Bodak Yellow' showcase his playful disrespect for boundaries.
Danny Leblack's 'American Drums' and the broken beat of 'Franco BA - Cemento' keep the rhythm section fascinatingly complex. The journey starts with the swung garage of 'Live On,' weaves through decades of house and bootleg ingenuity, and closes on the dubwise, sunny horizons of Zion Train's 'Great Barrier Reef,' leaving us thoroughly baptized in soul.