Norm De Plume makes a welcome return to Delusions Of Grandeur following up last year’s Castlecrag EP which boasted a remix from the mighty Folamour. The Londoner, now based in Sydney, has been quietly making a name for himself over the last decade with remixes for Tornado Wallace and Ben La Desh and EP’s for Kolour LTD and his own vinyl-only imprint Plumage winning him a solid following along the way. His passion for all things disco and deep, dubby, underground house inspired by his musical hero Ron Hardy feeds through into his production style as well as his recently formed Analogue Discogue party which boasts an audiophile sound system and vinyl-only sets from the DJ’s.

For his latest release entitled the Squarker EP Norm gives us plenty of heat for the dance floor across three brilliant originals. The title track even manages to make a slap bassline sound good(!) with a healthy dose of dub delays and some deep, epic chords building into the mix. A crunchy disco groove with live hihats and congas keeps things loose and organic whilst remaining fat and punchy.

Flipping over we have Love Me So which works up an 8th note live bass line to great effect, filtering chords adding a nice tension until the point where an off kilter synth sequences joins to add the icing on the cake.

Closing out the EP we have A Stone Thing which takes a more housey approach with classic 909 hats bringing a shuffle feel and layers of chiming chord stabs adding a deeper atmosphere for the warm up or afterhours.[info sheet from distr.]