Marcus Watkins presents For Those Who Crave
House music has never really needed much explanation. Give it a pulse, enough space to breathe and a reason to keep moving, and the rest tends to happen on its own. For Those Who Crave, the new three-track EP from Marcus Watkins, seems to understand this instinctively.
Released via Du.Me Records, the EP doesn't chase the kind of immediate impact that has become almost obligatory in contemporary club music. Instead, Watkins works with a more patient formula, keeping the tempos around 116–118 BPM and allowing the tracks to develop through groove rather than spectacle.
The opener, “Voices from Above”, immediately establishes that approach. It is spacious and unhurried, with a groove that feels more interested in pulling the listener in than announcing itself from the first bar. There is a certain confidence in that restraint. Watkins gives the track enough room to exist without constantly filling the gaps, making it an easy fit for the earlier stages of a set or those moments when a room is slowly finding its rhythm.
“Da Gojo” brings a little more weight to the EP. The pace remains controlled, but the track feels more physical, with the groove taking a more prominent role. It is the sort of cut that does not necessarily need to be the biggest record in the room to be effective. Its appeal comes from the way it holds its position and lets repetition do what repetition has always done best in house music: create momentum almost without you noticing.
Then there is “49 Revolutions Around the Sun”, which closes the EP and gives the release its most evocative moment. The title suggests time, cycles and repetition — ideas that fit surprisingly well with the music. At over seven minutes, Watkins has enough space to let the track breathe and unfold rather than forcing it into a conventional structure. It feels like a natural endpoint, not because it delivers some enormous climax, but because it leaves the listener in the same orbit the EP established from the beginning.
There is something refreshing about the lack of urgency across the record. Watkins isn't trying to turn every transition into a moment. There are no obvious attempts to manufacture tension simply for the sake of release. Instead, For Those Who Crave trusts the groove, and that makes the EP feel more DJ-oriented than purely studio-driven.
This is perhaps where the record finds its strongest identity. The three tracks are cohesive without sounding like interchangeable versions of the same idea. They share a common temperature, but each has a slightly different function. The opener creates the space, “Da Gojo” gets the room moving, and the closer stretches that movement into something more hypnotic.
It is also an EP that rewards the context in which it is played. At home, its understated qualities make it easy to sink into; on a proper sound system, the rhythmic focus becomes more apparent. It occupies that useful territory between listening record and DJ tool — music that can work without demanding to be noticed every second.
And perhaps that's the point. For Those Who Crave isn't trying to convince you that it is important. It simply gets on with the job of being a house record.
In a scene increasingly obsessed with impact, Watkins opts for persistence. In a format often overloaded with ideas, he keeps the message relatively simple: find the groove, stay with it, and let the repetition become the hook.
No grand statement, no unnecessary detours. Just three tracks that understand the value of staying in the pocket.
Sometimes that's enough.
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