(House, Disco) Tiger & Woods - Through The Green - 2011, MP3, 320 kbps

Tiger & Woods are a rather mysterious twosome. Here's what we know about the production duo: Tiger's first name is Larry and Woods' is David. Oh, wait—come to think of it, those given names seem suspiciously fake as well. But this we are certain of: The pair have been causing a commotion in the slo-mo-boogie and disco-edit worlds as of late, largely through the strength of a series of hand-stamped white labels released over the last year or so on the Editainment label.
Then there was that great electrofunked remix of Hundred in the Hand's jangly disco-wave tune "Commotion," and a chugging, totally groovy RA podcast from this past winter. The rather obtuse interview that accompanied that set saw the boys (we're assuming they're male here) claiming that the purpose for their secretiveness was that "it's so easy to get to know things nowadays; for once we tried to keep it spicy like it was back in the day." Fair enough—but that cloak of anonymity might be lifted soon whether they like it or not, as the pair's debut album, Through the Green, is coming out on Gerd Janson's Running Back label. And it rocks.
If you've heard that RA podcast, or managed to get your hands on any of those white labels—which feature heavily on the new LP—then you know the basic Tiger & Woods template: a steady, patient groove paired with carefully chosen, smartly arranged samples. Most of those samples are pulled from the disco-boogie universe, and share that I-think-I-know-that-one-but-can't-quite-place-it quality that can be either be frustrating or dreamy, depending on one's inclination towards trainspotting.
A few samples are easy to place—that's "Imagination" on "Gin Nation," for instance. One of the album's highlights, the song grabs bits and pieces of vocals from "Just an Illusion" and "Music and Lights," adds a touch of heavenly swirling keyboards, and sits them atop a deliberate groove. It's the classic slow-builder, but when that rubbery "Just an Illusion" bassline kicks in, it's goose-bump time. That's basically Tiger & Wood's modus operandi in a nutshell—a single-minded pursuit for that one moment of transcendence, with no inclination to get sidetracked along the way. Not that there's a lack of variation in the tracks. "Gin Nation" is roller-rink nirvana, with gloriously gauzy synths drifting beneath a chunky rhythm section and a loop of creamy vocal samples; "Dr. Burner," meanwhile, fuses a loping drum beat to electrofunk bass and a beautifully hooky synth squiggle.
Some of the tracks, like the galloping, glittering "Kissmetellme," manage to break the 120 BPM barrier, and a few even feature an actual vocalist—though, as you would expect from this crew, all we know of her is that her name is 'Em. They'll be fully outted soon—with an album this good, the backstory can't help but see the light of day—but even without the anonymity, Tiger & Woods will be plenty spicy.