ESSE breaks a 22-month gap with Work It

ESSE hadn’t put out a solo single in 22 months before Work It landed on ESSEntial., out 11 July, and that gap frames the whole release: whatever has occupied him in the meantime, this is the first new material to carry his name in 22 months. It follows Detroit, his most recent outing on the label, which arrived earlier this year — the same year ESSEntial. itself reaches a full decade of redefining house music’s edges.

Work It arrives as a single, leaning into a tighter, more mechanical groove that plays up the precision he’s known for as one of house music’s more exacting producers. It’s heavy on rhythm, built to move a room. ESSE sounds like he’s stepping into the sharpest form of his catalogue yet.