The German DJ-producer-label-owner Cinthie deploys an old R&B sample to lethal effect in “Concentrate,” a relentlessly buoyant house cut from her new album Skylines – City Lights.
Cinthie loops “Concentrate,” a track by the Gaturs and New Orleans R&B stalwart Willie Tee — Diddy borrowed from the same source on 1997’s “Do You Know?” — over a headlong kick drum and a bass line that would make Nile Rodgers proud. The tone of the instruments evokes turn-of-the-century French touch (Stardust’s “Music Sounds Better With You”) or pop that drew from the same influences (Kylie Minogue’s “Love at First Sight”). In other words, everything here is perfectly pitched to rile up a dancefloor, down to the minute-long vamp in the middle of the track that allows prospective DJs to toy with their audience before bringing the soothing vocal sample back for one final burst of jubilation.
Cinthie has been a reliable source of floor-fillers in recent years — see last year’s “Mesmerizing,” which is all blurting bass and frenetic string loops, or 2018’s stunning “Trust,” wind-chime house on steroids.
Skylines – City Lights spreads 12 songs across 72 minutes, touching on house, throwback Euro-disco, and garage. The album came out earlier this summer through AUS Music.
