Julius Steinhoff – Flocking Behaviour
Label: Smallville Records – SMALLVILLE LP09
Format: 2 x Vinyl, 12", 33 ⅓ RPM, Album
Country: Germany
Released: Jul 2014 / 2026 Repress
Genre: Electronic
Style: Deep House
Julius Steinhoff's debut album returns for 2026 in full cover repress — and Flocking Behaviour remains one of the benchmark releases in Smallville's celebrated catalogue. Half of Smallpeople, co-founder of Hamburg's Smallville empire and a producer and DJ in his own right, Steinhoff arrives here with a submission that is entirely, unmistakably his own. Rooted in the elegiac traditions of New York, Chicago and Detroit and a romantic concept of house music that is at times utopian, the eight tracks evoke late nights, hazy mornings and walks on thin air.
Flocking Behaviour is by no means anachronistic — Under A Waterfall and Hey You stretch their chromatic tentacles in and out of the genre's history while looking well ahead, simple in composition yet growing and rolling out in the mind long after the needle lifts. Treehouse and the title track are experiences that make you feel like meeting new people who instantly greet you like old friends. In an era of shallowness where producers circle around cynicism and superficiality, Steinhoff's approach is welcoming, caring and deeply sincere — house music stripped back to its emotional bones, resulting in a self-confident and timeless body of work. A booster shot of sincerity, back where it belongs.
