For someone whose records are so flamboyant, Frank Timm has a very utilitarian way of releasing music. Every two or three years, he drops new a 12-inch as Soundstream. There's never any question as to what these will sound like: sample-heavy disco-house has been the style since 1999. The quality of these records is equally consistent—all of them have been great, and a few of them have been exceptional (though which is which depends on who you talk to). All of which makes it unsurprising that his latest record, Bass Affairs, is yet another bundle of timeless club tracks.<br/><br/>
That flamboyant-yet-utilitarian quality extends to Timm's music, and especially on Bass Affairs. Party-friendly as they are, these are no-frills club tools. The sampling is less choppy than it has been on past Soundstream releases—this one is all about deliciously warm sounds and ultra-tidy compositions. "Bass Affairs" is, as Hard Wax puts it, a "disco house standard," all slapped bass and chunky drums. On the other two, odd flourishes offset classic disco tropes. The cheery shuffle of "Sweep Magic" is occasionally shot through with a jarring frequency that plummets from piercingly shrill to gut-rumblingly low (judging by the title, probably a hard tweak in filter resonance). On "Starstrike," upward-sloping synths lend the rolling groove a delirious sense of lift-off. All three package vivid disco samples into slamming house rhythms. Business as usual, in other words, which in Soundstream's case is always good news.
| A | Bass Affairs | 7:24 |
| B1 | Sweep Magic | 5:41 |
| B2 | Starstrike | 7:01 |
