CamelPhat and Green Velvet meet for the first time on Critical

CamelPhat and Green Velvet have never put their names on the same record, and ‘Critical’ is where that changes. Green Velvet is Curtis Alan Jones, the American house figure who founded Relief Records and has kept the industry guessing through one reinvention after another. The British duo arrive at the meeting off an acclaimed debut album, ‘Dark Matter’, which gave people a great deal to talk about through the closing months of 2020. Between them they hold countless Beatport number ones, awards, and streaming figures in the millions.

The single is tech house and it is built for a floor, with the synths up high, the basslines bent out of shape and the percussion cut tight under Jones’s own vocal. The production moves, and both acts sound like people who have been doing this a long time. Word of the collaboration was received with something close to euphoria, and the result is genuinely mind-blowing.

Last year mattered for CamelPhat, and the duo have shown no appetite for easing the pace. If this is how they intend to open 2021, the rest of the year is worth watching. ‘Critical’ is out today via Ministry of Sound Recordings; you can hear it below.