Some records do not need a long speech. They just look you in the eye, lock the kick, and ask the question. That is the mood of Talk To Me, the new collab from Spanish housemaster David Penn and UK producer-vocalist duo House of Molly, out now on Cr2 Records. It is tech house with old-school house muscle, plus a wink of early East Coast hip house that keeps the whole thing moving instead of moping.
The idea is simple and very human. Communication dries up. The silence gets loud. Plenty of artists would turn that into a late-night confession. Penn and House of Molly take the opposite route. They put the feeling on the floor. Playful vocals sit on a groove built for peak time, so you can hear the breakup story if you want to, or you can just dance and let the bassline do the talking. House of Molly put it best themselves: they were deep in early East Coast hip house when the track took shape, and somewhere in that session it became a breakup record that still wants people to move.
That mix of personality and function is why the cut already has serious ears on it. Early support has come from Joseph Capriati, Tini Gessler, Mark Knight, Jamie Jones, Raffa FL, TCTS, Piem, Davina Moss, Joris Voorn, Shiba San, Erik Hagleton, Jez Pereira, Hardsoul and more. When names that live on festival stages and warehouse systems all clock the same record, you know the drums are doing their job.
David Penn has been doing this job for a long time. More than three decades in, with over 400 productions and remixes, he is still one of the most reliable names in club house. He founded Urbana Recordings in 2003 and still treats house as a living thing: funky, soulful, a little jazz-minded, then pushed through contemporary production. His catalogue stretches from Defected to his own imprint, and the Kadoc classic Nighttrain remains a landmark, shifting more than two million copies and hitting the UK charts after exploding out of the mid-90s. Recent years have not been a victory lap either. There is Satisfy My Soul on Urbana, Just Stay The Night with Vintage Culture and Raphaella for Defected’s XXV anniversary album, and a 30th anniversary Nighttrain rework under the Kadoc name. Off the computer he is still touring hard, with 2026 dates across Ibiza, Spain, the UK, Croatia, the Netherlands, Czech Republic, Jersey and beyond.
House of Molly bring the other half of the handshake. The UK duo have already lined up with some of electronic music’s heaviest hitters, including Jamie Jones, Nicole Moudaber and Eats Everything, and BBC Radio 1’s Danny Howard has flagged them as producers to watch. Their writing on Talk To Me is the hook you remember after the lights come up: direct, a little cheeky, and built so the vocal can ride a club mix without losing attitude.
The timing helps. Tech house and old-school house are having another moment because people want records that swing, not just records that look good on a waveform. Tight drums, rolling bass, a vocal with character, and enough space for a DJ to work the track for six minutes. Talk To Me lives in that lane. It is not trying to invent a new genre name. It is trying to make the floor talk back.
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What do you think of this one? Does the hip house bite cut through, or is it the old-school groove that wins you over? Drop your take in the comments.
