Sunday Brunch - Midsummer

The first time I heard this track was in July 1999 at 9.30 a.m. at a party to celebrate the third birthday of Belgium's top notch deephouse club at that time: Food. I still remember this very clearly because it was an especially hot day in an especially hot summer. I've had been dancing all night like a maniac and since about 6 o'clock I was still going fierce on dj Geoffroy's excellent set consisting of prime of all prime tracks, as usual. Due to everybody's fatigue (obvious) the records were played at a moderate pass so that the 100 headstrong people left on the dancefloor could keep up. It was still very hot inside the club and while smoking a cigarette and drinking a beer to ease my sore throat Geoffroy just threw in 'Midsummer Night'. Instantly a big smile appeared on my face and I noticed that this was the case for about everyone. It just felt like a cool melancholic breeze coming down to chase the enormous heat away. A very strange experience, as if the track was just made for that particular moment in time. Everything fits: the built up, the disco elements, the groove, the vocals, the FX. I got hold of the track's name a short while after when my brother picked up 'The Lords Of Svek - Galaxy' compilation in London. I wasn't surprised that Midsummer Night was released under the Svek imprint. Their whole 12" catalogue is essential stuff.

What we have here is one of the several classic, stand out tunes on the brilliant Svek imprint - and by far its smoothest.
Both "Midsummer" tracks are defined by a mellow Fender Rhodes melody and some very soft, discoid percussion accompanied by Louise Ahrenberg - who by the way is one of the band member's, i.e. Seba's, sister - on the vocals that, admittedly, sail a bit close to the wind of cheesiness which is OK in this case, though. Both mixes play at about 119 bpm with the "Day" version being a bit faster and somewhat of a "club mix" thanks to its enchanting strings.
Whilst the person in the intro describes the atmosphere of nordic Midsummer nights and their daybreaks, this record somehow reproduces a very nice, summerly feeling so that it could just as well be some ancient Balearic tune from back in the days. The feel is the same and that's quite remarkable for a release of this period. An absolute must-have for fans of soulful Deep House settled near the borders of Downtempo.

A bit slow tempo wise for mixing in to the average house set, the A-Side is a bona fide classic with the Seba/Forme half of Sunday Brunch dominating the production on Midsummer Night. A little known fact is that this track was initially offered to LTJ Bukem for the Earth series. In a not so uncommon mental lapse, Bukem and Good Looking passed on the opportunity and the gem surfaced on Svek. Seba himself performs the quote in the introduction, while Seba's sister sings the main chorus. His sister also makes a brief appearance on Seba's "Valley of the Moomins" released on Good Looking.

'Midsummer Nights' is a lost gem, all-time classic of moody, melancholic deep house...another of these perfectly titled records, starting with a guy talking about these long mid summer nights up north where the sun never really disappears...'and before you realize it, it's a new day!', which makes the listener actually feel THERE...then a break, and enters this sugary, angelic girl voice coming in with a perfect coolish disco bassline. Far from his (also very good) acid, breaks and techo productions, this is one of Jasper Dahlback's best records, and a late 90s laid-back classic in Paris, championed by Ivan Smagghe on Radio Nova at the time. Absolutely essential.