Berlin-based producer Palms Trax offers up the inaugural release for new imprint Lobster Theremin with three slices of Detroit and Chicago-inspired house.

Palms Trax and label chief Jimmy Asquith first met at London club night Streets Of Beige, forming a partnership based on a shared affinity for vintage US sounds, analogue workouts, and rough-edged intersections of house and techno.

What began as an experiment in pad-driven Detroit workouts soon became Palms Trax' calling card, the young producer building valve-heated, dust-treated slabs of house in his home studio, shot through with melodic synths and smooth, undulating drum patterns that recalls the likes of Legowelt, John Heckle, Omar-S, Rick Howard and Nu-Groove era Burrell Brothers.

Cheeky, groove-heavy "Late Jam", referencing the randier sides of Miami boogie and glitter funk, "Equation", an original Detroit cut, and "Houses In Motion", a percussive, balearic-tinged jam nodding to early Drumpoet Community, comprise the EP's three original tracks. Willie Burns turns in a spacey remix of the EP's opener that hits like an early 80's drum jam, flipping between off-kilter, warped synths and stripped-down, hammering Chicago house.[info sheet from distr.]