- Marea Stamper is becoming quite the name in Chicago these days. She's the head booker for Smart Bar—the city's premiere club and one of the most well-known on the continent—and her sets are crate-digger catnip for classic house and disco heads (they're played with real panache, too). But she's also a producer, and ahead of a much-anticipated EP on Stripped & Chewed, she lands on Chrissy's fledgling Nite Owl Diner label.
"Stay" is fuzzy around the edges, like a disco edit made out of vague memories. Mumbled vocals, warbling chimes and some careful strings all give it a delirious feel, as if it could go on forever like that—which makes the shake-up halfway through all the more surprising. Switching to a driving bassline and a punchy but muted horn refrain, the track slowly comes back down to a cool, fading out with an extended intro. The fat-bottomed "Venus Requiem" is funkier, and its almost psychedelic moving-in-reverse effects make it sound like Stamper is chopping up records on the fly. Both sides, sounding lush and timeless, would go perfectly in one of her decades-spanning sets.
TracklistA1 Stay
B1 Venus Requiem