Artist: Thomas Penton
Title: Lock Up
Label: Sunkissed Records
By: Chloe Harris | 12 January 2003
Tracklist:

• A: Original Mix
• B: Fitzwater Remix

Thomas Penton "Lock Up"

Thomas Penton has been around a while, and has had releases out on quality labels such as Fade, Tune Inn and now Sunkissed. This tune goes from dirty tribal to techy funk, with a pretty airy synth and has been hammered by the likes of John Digweed, Chris Fortier, and Bill Hamel. Newcomer Matt Fitzwater is up on remix duties, and turns out a bouncier version then the original.

‘Lock Up’ starts up with some nice drum patterns. The kick hits hard, as the tribal drums make their way in. A sample of a man’s voice comes in and layers with some spacey sounds, and a trippy, flutey synth. The bass is a rolling nu school bass, and comes in after a quick break. This is the hook, and with the airy sounds accompanying it, there is no denying it’s got a lot of groove. Twisted sounds come in, and start the momentum. Techy sounds and gated effects happen as we fall into the main break. The synths are lovely, and romantic, but sad and melancholy. The drums tease their way back in, and the song takes off again

'Matt Fitzwater' is from Orlando, Florida, and fast becoming a name we should know. He starts things out with some straight up drums, which are techier, and a bit sparser. Washy sounds come in and fill up the space between the drums. We drop off into a quick break, as the bassline comes in. It’s bouncier then the original, and Matt changes and reworks that bassline completely. The synths enter over top, swirling above. As we go to the next break, we are treated to a different approach to the synths. They fall, as we drop into nice break beats, and then start back in. Lazer sounds come in, and take us to a techy territory and away we go.

A taste of what we can expect from Sunkissed in 03’, and a great new tune from Thomas Penton. He really has turned out a killer song, with a sad feel, but still remaining groovy, deep and dark.