Adam Port, Stryv, Malachiii – Positions LP

Berlin's Adam Port has spent the last few years drifting steadily further into big-room Afro house, though 'Positions' lands with more patience than some of the festival-sized material surrounding it. Built alongside US producer Stryv and vocalist Malachiii, the track runs on clipped hand percussion, a thick sub-bass pulse and a nagging synth phrase that keeps circling back around the drums without ever properly exploding. Malachiii's vocal does most of the heavy lifting, delivered in that half-sung, half-muttered style designed for huge outdoor systems just after sunset. You can see why it followed 'Move' so successfully. The whole thing is arranged with extreme precision, each extra hi-hat and bass swell arriving at exactly the moment the groove threatens to flatten out.