Might Niko Schwind be the new kingpin of house music? Everybody needs to find out for himself of course and that is best done when listening to his freshest output for Stil vor Talent: the “Midnightfunk” EP. It kicks off with the title track that features the great Chicagoeske vocal skills of Patrick Blasa, who takes us in on this journey towards a time when house music ruled the waves of the club oceans. Imagine a sticky slap bass, cowbells, high-pitched vocals and low-pitched male laughing plus of course the greatest thing about this scorcher: a somewhat jetlagged piano that seems to leap behind in one moment to then be right there again when it matters. Ace! With “Just a Groove” Berlin-based Niko dips deeply into the world of crescendo tech-house. The vocal builds up over one of those steadily wobbling basslines and some high-pitch effects juxtapose the beautiful jazzy piano of the breakdown. On the flip it’s “Sonderbar": an even more jazzy approach to techy house music of 2010. Weird, slightly minimal, but still very musical and the best thing about it: Niko just can’t do without vocals and that is a wonderful thing. Last up then “Midnightfunk", a more tooly piece of darker house that slowly builds up the tension and keeps grooving all the way through until it kicks off into a deep hypnotic flow. If kingpin or not: this record sounds great, all the way through!