House duo GLSS manufactures ‘Soul Feel’ EP

Layered into a deep house bass beat, a voice arises out of a mellow, pulsing intro. A multi-pitched looping lyric, “If you’re not the one then, then why does my soul feel?” is followed by a flurry of vocal work and assorted sounds.

The San Francisco-based house duo GLSS, comprised of third-year Design | Media Arts student Philip Scott and UC Davis student Brandon Whitney, has released a second round of new material to follow its debut EP, “Break,” released in January.

The two-track “Soul Feel” EP was distributed through Bay Area label and artist collective POPGANG on Feb. 25, and features two original mixes, “Soul Feel” and “Perrier Club Millionaire.” While both contrast stylistically, they share many elements of house music.

Scott said Whitney emulates classic styles on “Perrier Club Millionaire,” integrating elements of jazz into a dance song. The album reflects the musical backgrounds of both of the duo’s members.

“(Whitney) has a background in percussion,” Scott said. “He is very versatile as a drummer, so that really comes through in ‘Perrier Club Millionaire.'”

Scott said the first song on the EP, “Soul Feel,” was inspired by his desire to make contextualized vocals on something more lyrical and melodic.

“‘Soul Feel,’ in terms of the bass line and the facing, has a pretty classic deep house style,” Scott said. “Especially how the vocals are manipulated and how there’s hip-hop switch-ups and arpeggios.”

Scott said he created the mix in between classes at Dickson Court in North Campus. While both artists collaborated on the EP, Scott said “Soul Feel” reflects more of his style, while “Perrier Club Millionaire” was more of Whitney’s influence.

Whitney and Scott have collaborated for several years, starting off in San Francisco as synth-pop group BeardForce. Scott said he and Whitney continued exploring new sounds as their musical interests matured, leading him and Whitney to come together as GLSS.

“Overall, ‘Soul Feel’ is a dance music release that is moving in a direction that it can’t be just classified solely under dance music,” Scott said. “It’s obviously going to be a little bit harder to play ‘Perrier Club Millionaire’ live, but we are excited to play both of the tracks out.”

GLSS produced the EP before sending it to POPGANG, where Hank Kallen, also known as club music producer Ear Jerker, mastered the mixes.

“We did a couple rounds with (Kallen) of mastering and then we sent out the track,” Scott said. “They put the tracks on Beatport, and put up a press kit for us.”

Although he created the album artwork for the duo’s “Break” EP, Scott said POPGANG does design in-house, and took care of the artwork for the “Soul Feel” EP. He said the clean orange and powder blue artwork presents a simple and clean appearance.

Since releasing “Break” on Brazil-based Grooverdose Records, GLSS has additionally mixed live sets on Temple Music Radio from the Zen Compound in San Francisco and has been working on remixes of artists on the POPGANG label.

Scott said IGNELZI, electronic music producer and DJ, will release a remix of “Break,” around mid-May, and that GLSS plans on returning to San Francisco soon for live performances.

GLSS plans on releasing another EP with Grooverdose Records in the coming months and has managed to have consistent releases on multiple labels.

“Right now for us it is all about exploration and figuring out what we like and what will sound good,” Scott said. “We are primarily interested in innovating with different sounds and styles that we are interested in.”