Bert Verso - ICHLU

Label: This – TH001
Format: Vinyl, 12", EP
Country: UK
Released: June, 2023
Genre: Electronic
Style: House, Techno, Broken Beat

Bert Verso commits his music to vinyl for the first time with ICHLU — the second in a run of three EPs for the UK label This, and a record that confirms the cross-functional, genre-fusional sound he has been developing as one of the more quietly compelling propositions in contemporary UK club music. Four original works and a remix from Eden Burns, sequenced with the instinctive flow of a producer who knows exactly how a record should move.

The title track opens proceedings with super tight pitched-down breaks and tastefully placed melodic jabs — restrained but with a softly burning intensity that is pure Bert Verso. Azure Pops melds B-more club and dub techno into something prickly and percussive before Eden Burns repackages it as a stripped-back vintage house roller, its sonic palette conjuring distant Paradise Garage warmth. The B-side turns inward — Daisy, written in anticipation of the birth of Verso's daughter Alva, glows softly before building into a shimmering arpeggio of quiet emotional power. Sugary Cove closes the record by combining the strengths of both sides: searching melodies moving fluidly over weighty synthesised drums and warm low-end. A debut on wax that delivers on every level.