Steve Bug

If you are at all familiar with house music maestro Steve Bug or his influential label, Poker Flat, you'll know that Mr. Bug is fond of utilising aliases to push his music in new directions, or diversify his market share while simultaneously feeding into the "prolific and enigmatic DJ" role. Either way, it's a canny move. Steve Bug Presents Traffic Signs (a collection of one-off, dance floor-ready, jacking house releases, released sporadically over the last decade) falls clearly into the latter category. Far less thoughtful and ethereal than his usual output, the press release claims these tracks are "true underground classics," if this is the case, let's hope they stay there. Unintentionally hilarious, overly processed (and vaguely Teutonic) vocal samples underpin four-on-the-floor beats that do nothing and go nowhere, layered with whiny synths that simultaneously bring to mind images of vomit-splattered Mediterranean hotspots and beautiful people gurning. It's like someone sound tracked a bottle service. All is not lost though, as there are flashes of inspiration. "Infiltrate" contains a pleasingly insistent groove, as opposed to the mid-range synth slush that makes up the majority of the rest of the project, while "Hold It" reminds us of why Bug's tracks are so intriguing in the first place, being deep, dark and throbbing. Do yourself a favour and check out last year's Noir instead.