Following up to last year's ‘A Minute In Between’ EP released on sister platform Fluid Electronics, Rotterdam-based producer Klankarbeit turns up on Fluid Funk with his newest transmission, ‘In The Box’. Through four chiseled cuts exploring the confines of stepping house and classic Chicagoan shuffle, the Dutch vibist has us body-jacked through typically sun-streaked blends, shifting gears effortlessly between hi-NRG blasts and poolside lounging-ready combos. Not quite trading atmosphere for dynamics, but merging both into exquisitely smooth cocktails of sound, Klankarbeit lays down yet another impeccable assortment of light-footed club wares: laid-back yet deadly operant.

All in smooth-tongued machine talk, sliced-up vox stabs and incisive drumwork, the tendinous yet sensual title-track ‘In The Box’ is pure house milk and honey from the bottle. A firework of filtered pads looping us up into orbit as rowdy percussions beat a fiery, heavily syncopated tempo. Kodachrome'd Detroit vibes exude from the solar ‘I Think I Know’, beautifully closing the gap between washed-out, coastal serenity and a most urban density of tones and polyamorous instrumental vibrancy. A playground for agile, ankle-breaking moves and heavily filtered, French Touch-style convolutions, ‘Miami’ blazes with that Latin-inflected jazz that shall melt faces and hearts at once. Going a deeper emotional route, EP closer ’Snowflake’ treats us to a poignant, piano-riddled ride across a slo-mo’d, abstract-leaning kind of headspace, capping off the trip on a true soul-broadening, soothingly minimal note.