It’s been seven years since Smallpeople’s debut album, ‘Salty Days’. In the time since, much has changed in our world of dance music, and, so we hear, even beyond. Yet our men in Hamburg have remained dedicated to their unapologetically reassuring vision of house music as-a-whole. As well as expanding their Smallville Records shop in Hamburg’s St. Pauli, they’ve continued to act on their direct-line to the beating heart of house music at some of the world’s finest clubs, including their monthly residency at Hamburg’s legendary Golden Pudel, inviting guests such as Lakuti, Session Victim and Pantha Du Prince into the warmest dance in the grimiest club. Of course, all these manoeuvres sit alongside their work running Smallville Records, home to the likes of Moomin, STL and Christopher Rau, and it’s sub-label, Fuck Reality. Given Julius Steinhoff and Dionne’s stewardship in filtering the creme-de-la-creme of house music from the underground and into clubs across Europe and further afield, it would be particularly cliched on this occasion to stress that their second record is “eagerly awaited.” In their own way, they have already given us enough great records. But with ‘Afterglow’, we get another, and more importantly, one carved directly from the hearts and record collections of two individuals whose understanding of dance music appears to be some sort of blissful second-nature. This sort of earned assuredness is immediately established on opening track ‘Magic Interference’, a rolling, deep and somewhat jazzy house number with tumbling keys and sky-walkin’ chords. This steady, blissful vibe sets the tone for the first half of the record, as the pair patiently unfold their touchstones; equal parts Chicago (‘Hearts at Whole’), Detroit (‘All States of Dawn’) and Hamburg, famed for it’s transatlantic routes