Phases and Stages

D:Fuse

People (V2) D:Fuse has been poised for greatness so long it's a wonder his legs haven't buckled. While the rest of the Austin DJ scene reels from the feds' war on fun, D:Fuse has quietly solidified an international rep that's scored him a monthly residency in San Francisco and slots on UK monster events like Cream. The days of his spinning at the dive next door may be a thing of the past (no less than Paul Oakenfold calls Fuse the future of music), but the unassuming local DJ with the 10-gallon hat still smacks of his club roots. Falling somewhere between the incestuous world of progressive house and just left of trance, the 2-CD People opens slow with Fever's "Distorted Horizon," one of those backyard bass burblings that in a club setting usually arrives right about the time you notice the girl you've been staring at across the dance floor has pupils nearly as large as your own. It's a loping, steady, streamlined groove that hooks up to Colours' unwisely named "The Guitar Track," and from there to highlights like Infrared's "Never Need to Worry," with its soaring, ethereal backing vocals tamped way down in the mix, and disc two's Latin-inflected opener, "Deeper," from Moda. For the most part, the tracks here are slammin'. Any DJ can make you feel it in a club, but it indicates a whole other level of skill to find yourself doing light housework in your skivvies, woofers banging, and grinning like an idiot.