Next up on Heist is the fast-fingered synth wizard Crackazat for an EP full of crunchy chords, tight grooves and a remix by Detroit house royalty Rick Wade.

Crackazat’s fusion of jazz and house are a perfect match with the upbeat sound we dig over here at Heist HQ. So after his recent outing on Freerange with the brilliant “Valentine EP” and his regular work on Local Talk, we’re happy to have Crackazat feature on Heist.

The Alfa EP kicks off with the title track: A track full of bouncing piano riffs and skipping hihats for a serious dose of high energy house music. The frantic keys and drums are countered by a lead and dreamy pads with an almost ethereal vibe to it. But don’t be misled, this track is pure dancefloor heat and is exactly what we love about house music.

“Class one” goes into a more mellow direction, with warm fuzzy chords on the 1 and an eyes-shut lead solo with so much space it seems to be coming from a different galaxy. The whole track has such a comforting feeling; Like a thick blanket of chords warming you up and crystalline synth hits telling you everything will be all right. The energy does pick up around the 3 minute mark with another showcase of Crackazat’s excellent feel for chords, when he introduces another lovely loop to accompany the solo. Pure class.

On the flip, we’ve got Tiger’s eyes where we see Crackazat dive deep into jazzy harmonies. Here, arpeggios and crunchy overtones make for an intense ride of bumping house music that just makes you want to keep on dancing for hours on end.

The remix on this EP is by Rick Wade, another producer who’s got jazz running through his veins. It’ll be no surprise that his remix of “Alfa” is about as deep and old school as it gets. He goes for an amped bass and a big drum groove along with his own set of soulful chords and guitar licks. This remixes breathes the house that Detroit has been built on with Rick Wade as one of the main engineers of the genre.

We’re happy to dive into 2021 with this EP full of jazzy house grooves and we hope you’ll like it as much as we do.