Ben Hoo - Ibiza 2018 (2018)

Core Get Physical artist Ben Hoo has mixed the label’s superb Ibiza 2018 compilation featuring 17 new and exclusive tracks that are sure to be the sound of summer.
The compilation comes one week after Hoo releases two of his own tracks from it on a standalone EP, entitled ‘An Expanse’. They once again showed off his accomplished sound, which draws on his background as a composer and multi-instrumentalist. Hoo is behind the ‘We Are Night People’ radioshow on Ibiza Sonica, he also mixed last year’s Ibiza compilation and lives on the White Isle so firmly has his finger on the pulse of contemporary beats and the feel of the island.
Things open up with emotive ambient piece ‘Into Focus’ from Depth Migration before slowly awakening through the slow and loose, worldly percussive grooves of Christian Len & Papadupau’s ‘Moyocoyani.’ Deep house atmospheres from Arkestra and Peter W then slowly start to lift the tempo but in smooth and seductive fashion. Nazt & Christian Schiemann’s slick minimal house then leads into a Hoo remix of Blondish that is all about loosely scattered toms and kicks and tons of reverb.
Hoo’s intimate ‘Meet in the Middle’ sets the tone for the mid section of the mix which plays out with freaky but reduced house from Alvaro Medina and Eder Alvarez & Joey Daniel, then Reboot serves up dreamy pads and swirling atmospheres on his skeletal ‘Romancing the Bone.’ It’s delicate, cerebral stuff throughout with trippier moments from F.eht & Alice Clark and a brilliantly delicate Hoo remix of Nicole Moudaber and Carl Cox that is spine tingling and absorbing.
This is a high class mix that has a cosy back room feel to it and plenty of coherent sidesteps into dubby, heady and more otherworldly house styles along the way.