Dusky Stick By This CD

With a discography that covers melodic techno, deep house, nu disco-flavours and progressive, Above & Beyond's Anjunadeep imprint has been rewriting it's own rule book in the past 18 months - gaining support from acts as varied as UK techno baron Dave Clarke, French house legend Lifelike, stadium dance star Deadmau5 and Eric Prydz. With the release of Dusky's effortlessly diverse "Stick By This" LP, the label's boundaries are being redrawn once again. Ambitious, expansive but brilliantly cohesive, "Stick By This" joins the dots between Booka Shade's melodic electronica ("Falling"), Leftfield's dub techno ("I'm Running"), the classic musicality of MJ Cole ("Lost in You") and warm Laurent Garnier-esque techno ("Need You Back"). Adding further colour to the album's spectrum, the album's first single - "Lost in You" - is a deep, bass-driven piano house anthem that features the soulful vocals of Janai and has gained props from US house godfather Tony Humphries and UK bass talent Toddla T - the latter supporting the track BBC Radio 1. Finding fans at opposite ends of the dance music spectrum is nothing new for the Dusky duo. Previously existing as progressive/ melodic house entity Solarity, Dusky are London based musicians Alfie Granger-Howell and Nick Harriman. As comfortable writing elegant orchestral pieces or stirring piano motifs as they are jackin' garage house and epic techno grooves, their diverse sounds are united by the duo's singular aim - to compose electronic music with depth, soul and originality. Influenced by everything from classical and jazz to techno, UK bass and avant-garde electronica, their compositions have been supported by DJs as diverse as Dubfire, Sasha, Vincenzo, Shur-I-Khan, Motorcitysoul and Above & Beyond. One of 2011's most exciting debut albums, "Stick By This" looks set to extend their appeal further yet.