STL "Heaven's Vape" - Boiler Room Debuts

It's been a solid 18 months since Smallville mainstay Stephan 'STL' Laubner dropped 'At Disconnected Moments', his moody album-long voyage into dub techno. It was Laubner at his dankest – gravelly kicks, skin-crawl melodies and, in places, an almost cosmic darkness.

His new 12" is a bold leap into the light. The frosty atmospheres have thawed. Gladly his signature percussive crunch remains in spades, but the mood is ecstatically up. For peak-time exultation, send for a draw on 'Heaven's Vape': a loose body-lifter with a shower of synth-stabs that trip on all of the same unbottled euphoria as Omar S' near-perfect remix of 'Wayne County Hill Cops'. And that's not a comparison made lightly.