Single Review: Frisky - Maceo Plex

Image source: WildbloodMore understated funk laced tech-house gallantry from Maceo Plex single on Crosstown Rebels. A Maceo release is generally always worth a listen and this one is no exception, despite some track names that are more than just a little lame.

'Frisky' is muted in atmosphere so whilst the name conjures up visions of Lynx adverts and sticky Jaeger coated dance floors it is actually something quite different. This is less collective euphoria, more mutual alienation and, a slightly mis-placed spoken word moment aside ("Sometimes you got to get loose, feel frisky") it totally works. It's the house equivalent of a long wordless car journey.

B-side 'Sex Appeal' is a different beast - it's still classy in comparison to its name but this time it is at least descriptive of the subject matter. This is a bumpy, tweaking and emotive piece of acid house. What Maceo Plex has been doing so well recently is bring a warmth and depth to pretty straight forward house and techno, and that is exactly what he does here. The acid is jacking but this is a really full, sophisticated take on the sound. The heavily filtered male vocals may be a touch too much for some though and a dub that strips them back a little would be welcome.

Frisky is out now on Crosstown Rebels, available from Amazon.co.uk on MP3 [affiliate link].

EP Review: High U Gonna Feel - Den Ishu

Previously unknown to me, Den Ishu has just released a really nice four track EP on Supernature.

Title track 'How U Gonna Feel' drops some heavy funk, a hard, substantial bass line keeping things moving amongst tweaking strings and the odd flourish of live bass. This is a track that instantly feels very, very close - the drums high in the mix and the whole thing incredibly crisp. It's a pretty irresistible start to the EP.

'Your Experience' may be a little less immediate, but it's just as good - a Detroit groove builds whilst a clipped vocal harps on about the importance of 'the experience'. It's clearly a dance floor piece but it does it pretty well. 'Say The Word' continues the progression - it's harder and more introspective than either other cut, synths swirling claustrophobically, holding one pretty much continuous warbling melody line for about a third of the song. With nice percussive breaks and plenty of high-end it once again proves Ishu's chops.

Avatism turns in a seriously deep remix of 'How U Gonna Feel' that focuses on a few key elements and throws in some piano jazz for good measure. It's very dark and creepy but also seriously catchy, dropping a massive bass line halfway through that you can't help but move to.

A really consistent but varied release.

High U Gonna Feel is out now on Supernature.

Album Review: LateNightTales volume Two - Belle and Sebastian

Image source: The Music Slut

Embarrassing fact or not (I'm really not sure) - I've never really listened to much Belle and Sebastian. 'The Boy With The Arab Strap' is excellent but beyond that I draw a bit of a blank. The LateNightTales albums are generally worth a listen though and so when a copy popped through the letter box I stuck it on regardless of relatively modest excitement levels.

And I'm very glad I did because it is probably the best LateNightTales I've heard. It's far more eclectic than I would have expected and there are not just one or two but a number of tracks by artists I've not heard of that I will certainly check out more of.

Things start off relatively psychedelic with Broadcast's 'Ominous Cloud' instantly plunging us into a swirling world of slightly trippy sixties pop. It feels like being stuck between the celluloid of The Wicker Man and Performance. Nothing on this album stays as it is for long though and soon you are enveloped in Milton Nascimento & Lô Borges' Latin Jazz and things feel much warmer than you would ever have expected on such an album.

Bonnie Dobson's 'Bird of Space' is back in bonkers psychedelia territory but it is also strangely beautiful, Dobson's shrill vocals dancing around sitars and sweeping strings to create a disconcertingly epic sound. In amongst all this weirdness Gold Panda's 'Quitters Raga' fits like hand slipping into glove, highlighting Belle and Sebastian's selection skills and Gold Panda's utter brilliance.

After the Pop Group, whom are probably the sole bum-note, their avant-garde post-punk still leaving me cold, things get even more sublime. All too brief, the Stan Tracey Quartet's 'Starless and Bible Black' provides a brief one-minute stellar jazz interlude that feels like free-wheeling through space, see the Earth vanish from view and barely caring. The Lovin' Spoonful's 'Darlin' Be Home Soon' is a perfect contrast, filled with the same dull ache but wrapped up in earnest pop melodies and beautiful production. Belle & Sebastian's cover version of the Primitives 'Crash' is good, but mainly serves to highlight how brilliant a lot of the other material here is.

I could go on, but you should probably just listen to the album... There is just so much worth hearing. A dub of Pete Shelley's solo record 'Homosapien' almost steals the show but it is Remember Remember's heartbreaking 'Scottish Widows' that does. A haunting, perfect piece of music - call it new-classical, call it post-rock, I call it fantastic.

In summary then? You'd be foolish not to.

Belle and Sebastian's Late Night Tales Volume 2 is out now, available from Amazon.co.uk on CD and MP3 [affiliate links]; stream now on Spotify.

EP Review: What You Do - Miguel Puente

Image source: Resident AdvisorFollowing on from last week's ode to John Talabot here is a bit more warm dance music from Barcelona for you.

Johnny White and Nitin's No. 19 Music have recently had releases from Louie Fresco and the highly in demand Maceo Plex but now it's the turn of Barcelona based Mexican Miguel Puente. All three tracks here feature a slightly retro sound that harks back to late eighties house, albeit with a fairly progressive edge. Cue bouncy bass lines and a minimal approach to production that relies very little on anything beyond drums, bass and vocals.

All three tracks here are relatively similar - they could almost be different takes on the same record. Title track 'What You Do' has a hard bouncing bass line but despite being the title track it is probably the least interesting. 'It's Been So Long' has some melodic keys and feels perfect for those moments just after the sun has dipped below the surface. 'Save Each Other' is best though, with the same heavy bass as the other two tracks but some massive echoing drums and some massive reverb - it's well worth a listen.

What You Do is out now on No. 19 Music.

Album Review: Fin - John Talabot

Image source: Red Bull Music AcademyFollowing on from my write-up on Cloud Atlas' Attack On Nothing earlier this week I couldn't let John Talabot's Fin pass by without comment.

I'd not previously heard of Talabot before a month or so back when the press for Fin started rolling in. After a brief listen on Spotify I knew this was an album I needed to own.

Fin feels like a commentary on electronic music itself. Whilst portions of dance music twist themselves into an ever tighter rubber band ball trying to define exactly what contemporary dubstep 'means' to nine decimal points here is an album that feels like a broad snapshot of the past twenty-five years taken through the lens of a brand new high-definition camera. There are moments that recall early-nineties dance, eighties electro and noughties minimal but it does so in a way that feels utterly consistent. In a sense this is an album of no style, not in terms of lacking stylistic sense (definitely not) but in that it has no genres tied to it at all.

It also captures subtleties of human emotion - 'Oro y Sangre' is all moody blues without ever uttering a word whilst 'Journeys', featuring Etkhi on vocals, feels like sunny expeditions through tropical islands. Opener 'Dapak Ine' has paranoia before emerging butterfly like halfway through with a key change that casts off the worry as easily as swallowing a pill. The latter takes all the texture and detail of minimal techno and applies it to an instrumental that manages to come off as accessible - Ricardo Villalobos with a hook you can remember, basically. This is clearly the work of someone who really knows what they are doing.

As things move towards the end of the album you can't help but feel the warmth of Talabot's hometown Barcelona pulse through this record. These are themes for losing yourself too. 'When The Past Was Present' aptly captures the cynicism-free optimism of rave and packages it up into something that means you can almost feel yourself getting lost on the dance floor for the first time all over again - it's like Talabot set out to re-create Moby's 'Go' and somehow made a classic even better.

Closing on 'So Will Be Now', bouncing beats, handclaps and bruised vocal chants Fin feels appropriately like a climatic full stop - the end of the beginning. Debut records that are well realised are rare - even more impressive is that this one does so much whilst relying on so little in the way of genre or contemporaries.

Fin is out now, available from Amazon.co.uk on CD, LP and MP3 [affiliate links]; stream now on Spotify.