TuneLab
Mike Huckaby strictly vinyl set in The Lab NYC
There's a specific, reverent hush that falls when a master like Mike Huckaby cues up a strictly vinyl set, a silent acknowledgment that we're about to receive a transmission from the source. His Lab NYC session is deep house in its most authentic, soul-stirring form—a patient, physical sermon preached from the turntables. The vibe is one of concentrated listening in a room that feels both vast and intimate, where the crackle of wax is part of the instrumentation.
Technically, this is deep house orthodoxy: a narrow, hypnotic BPM band around 118.7, with harmonic movement primarily between the complementary, moody keys of 12A and 7A. The mixing is long, luxurious, and deeply musical, often letting tracks play out for minutes to fully immerse us in their narrative, with the energy profile overwhelmingly low-end focused, creating a warm, sub-aquatic pressure. The arc is less about peaks and more about a sustained, meditative state, using subtle textural shifts and soulful vocals to guide the emotional journey.
The crate digging here is elite: the opener 'SNM (Saturday Night Music)' is a slow-burn, jazzy deep house gem, while Walter Gibbons' legendary edit of Jakki's 'Sun… Sun… Sun…' is a holy grail of percussive, spiritual house. Ron Trent's 19-minute epic 'Jazz Funk Freedom' is the breathtaking centerpiece, a live-sounding journey unto itself, and the closing 'I'm the Baddest Bitch (Moodymann Mix)' is a perfectly raw, funk-drenched send-off. The set begins with the atmospheric swell of 'SNM', journeys through the expansive live keys of 'Jazz Funk Freedom' as its profound peak, and ends on the defiant, stripped-back swing of Norma Jean Bell.