Open Door

When does an EP have all the heavyweight impact of an album? When it’s a reissue of Losoul’s “Open Door.” Originally released in 1996, one of the early singles on the legendary house/techno/minimal label Playhouse, its premise is strikingly simple – borrow four bars of itchy, irrepressible funk, loop it for ten minutes, see what happens – but the end result was startling, particularly given its clear-eyed brokering of a compact between German minimal and US funk. “Open Door” is the classic, but if anything, the b-side, “00000000”, feels even more prescient, its piston-pump unrelenting for near 19 minutes, its clipped riff and wild motif – a cross between a creaky door and a crying seagull – so tightly wound, the track constantly threatens to boil over. It never does. Remixes from Theo Parrish and Gerd, and a previously unreleased extra track, are welcome extras.