For some reason, in the weeks leading up to Christmas, I was pretty much constantly in the mood to listen to a track called "Well Wishers" by UK house producer Julio Bashmore. Some people say that the core xylophone melody sounds a little too much like the one that appears on "Urbanism" by Chicago's Ricardo Miranda, but "Well Wishers" has got this amazing passage of continuous, rapid-fire snare hits that sounds kind of like a little drummer boy gone postal. To my surprise, when Christmas Day actually rolled around, Bashmore unveiled this new cut from Velour, his long-dormant collaboration with Hyetal, which leans more toward the dark ambience and rhythmic asymmetries of Bristol bass. No word on a physical release from the duo just yet, but "Speedway" does a good job marrying the joys of repetition with funky twists and turns, and it certainly lives up to the note that Bashmore included with the NASCAR-themed video clip: "Velour return in dramatic fashion."
