French label D3 Elements returns to Chicago for its next EP, this time looking to the assured house talents of Hakim Murphy for three tracks of raw, dense grooves right from the heart of the Windy City. Murphy has been busy in recent years, putting out his prickly yet soul infused analogue sounds in both LP and EP format. He has done so on his own Machining Dreams and Synapsis Records labels as well as on the assured likes of Plan B and Episodes. The latter is run by Ike Release, someone with whom hakim has collaborated often as Innerspace Halflife, a live PA project. Opener 'Boxbeat' is a curious, freaky jam with bobbing percussive hits, wonky, pixel thin synth lines and free roaming pads that wrap the whole thing in a nice sense of spaced-out serenity. 'Taste o'Rainbow' has a much more firmly planted kick drum that pounds away uninterrupted below a free flowing brew of modulate synth sounds. It's expertly reduced and masterfully reserved and is sure to send dance floors wild as a result. The flipside cut 'Freshness' has pinging drums and a big, frazzled bass line as slithering chords rain down the face. Musical yet jacking, cosmic yet propulsive, it is a perfectly contemporary Chicago house sound that rounds out a fine EP from one of the best in the game.