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Mute
Direct Cuts (Redux) (re-edited by Gerd Janson)
Running Back
- Cat No: rb002.1
- updated:2026-02-16
MUTE's 2003 "Direct Cuts" — originally the second release on Running Back, the label founded by Gerd Janson and glance's Thorsten Scheu — gets reissued in a Gerd Janson edit.
Re-issue of a Running Back classic. Originally released in 2003 as the the second outing of the label, it is still a remarkable release in the catalogue. Now, carefully rescued from the original DAT tapes, re-edited by Gerd Janson and remastered by Lopazz, it’s available again in a clear and present portraiture of its original intent.
Conceived by the rather elusive Mute, the Direct Cuts are a master class in heartfelt and understated timeless deep house. Influenced in equal parts by the still towering Prescription Underground and the New York singularity that was a young Bobby Konders, Mute managed to create a sound of his own. Marked by live arrangements, bedroom studio aesthetics, a love for dub music and a tempo that was more boogie than techno, it has not lost an inch of its charm. A proposition that probably led Leon Vynehall to pick the hypnotic Never for his Fabric mix. Along with Ocha, Direct Cut and Bensono, Mute proves that iteration does not necessarily mates with deadly dullness.
Conceived by the rather elusive Mute, the Direct Cuts are a master class in heartfelt and understated timeless deep house. Influenced in equal parts by the still towering Prescription Underground and the New York singularity that was a young Bobby Konders, Mute managed to create a sound of his own. Marked by live arrangements, bedroom studio aesthetics, a love for dub music and a tempo that was more boogie than techno, it has not lost an inch of its charm. A proposition that probably led Leon Vynehall to pick the hypnotic Never for his Fabric mix. Along with Ocha, Direct Cut and Bensono, Mute proves that iteration does not necessarily mates with deadly dullness.
An early Running Back classic returns, edited by Gerd Janson for today's dancefloors and remastered by Lopazz. "Ocha" rides a thick, fat-bottomed groove with a Wild Pitch-style sustained build and dubby synth riffs. "Never" on A2, with its cut-up percussion beats and screaming vocal samples, was also used in Leon Vynehall's mix for Fabric. Four tracks drawing on influences like Prescription (Ron Trent + Chez Damier) and Bobby Konders' house era. To my ears, it's where rudeboy basslines and a krautrock sensibility meet rave and dance music. (Original Japanese text by Saito)