Album Review: Future Disco Presents: Poolside Sounds Volume II - Various

The Future Disco series from NeedWant has established a position as one of the most reliable house and modern disco compilation series in recent years and it has long also acted as a showcase for the label's own talent and sound. This new Poolside Sounds is the second in a relatively recent series offshoot featuring on a more laid back sound, with the original appearing last year.

This new album has been compiled, edited and mixed by label boss Sean Brosnan and he's aimed to take things in a deep, sun-kissed but sub-aqua direction on this new release. Poolside Sounds II is a consistently crafted album that maintains a relaxed holiday feel throughout. Deep house with dubby production work makes this an ideal album for daytime listening when relaxing in the sun this summer.

Tracks come from a wide variety of artists but as is usually the case with the Future Disco series there is no apprehension about dropping in a mixture of established and new tracks here. I praised Lost Magpie's 'Who Knows Where Love Goes' last year - its spacious atmosphere and delicate female vocals slot right in here and it's good to hear it again. Similarly 'This Time Around' by Softwar is full of old school piano house riffs and soulful vocals, fitting right in to the overall album's sound.

Night Plane's brilliant indie-influenced soft-dance piece 'Gates Of Dawn', featuring Heather D'Angelo of Au Revoir Simone on vocals, is another welcome return. The Chasing Kurt remix of Cleov's moody and sensual 'Crush On You' is another particular highlight, capturing the physical intimacy of hot sunny days.

As a side note, prresumably coincidentally (as the promo arrived just days after his death), legendary house music producer Romanthony gets a posthumous billing on the album in the form of the bumping, James Brown inspired 'Bring U Up', remixed by PBR Streetgang. As far as I remember I have never covered him on the blog, sadly because throughout much of the past ten years his output dropped in volume. Regardless, Romanthony is undoubtedly one of my favourite producers. He is perhaps best known for his contributions to Daft Punk's Discovery on both 'One More Time' and 'Too Long' but his R. Side In Plain Site, from which the (vastly superior) original of 'Bring U Up' is taken is a criminally under-recognised modern classic. Seek it out.

Poolside Sounds is a lush holiday house album - it lacks the peaks of some of the Future Disco albums due to the focus on deeper, dubbed out house but it's a perfect soundtrack to laid back days in the Mediterranean waiting for the cooler evenings and I can't think of many places I'd rather be.

Poolside Sounds Volume II is out through Needwant on 24 June, available to pre-order from Amazon.co.uk on CD [affiliate link]. Check out the minimix below:

www.futuredisco.net www.facebook.com/FutureDisco After the success of last year's Poolside Sounds, Future Disco are back with the second installment of the informed summer soundtrack. They take us straight to the deep end for a plunge into the perfect laidback House mix that will guide you through those long hot days and warm summer nights.

Album Review: Late Night Tales - Röyksopp

In its slightly glitchy melodic electronic pop, Röyksopp's 'Daddy's Groove' opens the duo's Late Night Tales album in much the way you would expect. It's soft and laid back and a little bit left field, but ultimately it's exactly the sort of piece we've heard from them before. In fact it only emphasises how much of what follows is distinct from the band's output as musicians. As DJs they have crafted a selection of music that is intensely cinematic, dreamlike and some distance from the carefree music Röyksopp are usually associated with.

The duo appear to have been very influenced by seventies west coast rock when making the selection for this album. There's an abundance of blue-eyed, blonde soulful and smooth rock music that crops up at various points. Rare Bird's 'Passing Through' and the 'The Light Of Day' by Little River Band put in early turns, with their classic hooks and multi-instrumentation giving the album a dreamlike feel and though neither bands were actually American you wouldn't know it from the songs here.

The dreams keep coming as we gently segue into Vangelis' tear stained 'Blade Runner Blues', a beautiful momentary pause before we move into the synthpop of Röyksopp's other original track here, Depeche Mode cover 'Ice Machine', and then Icelandic neo-classical composer Jóhann Jóhannsson's haunting 'Adi Et Amo'.

View fullsize

Late Night Tales - Röyksopp

Things get more dreamlike there on out. F. R. David's 'Music' is all west coast again, but this time hazy and soft focused. Prelude's a capella cover of Neil Young's 'After The Goldrush' is heavenly and a little David Lynch-esque in its surreal warming purity coupled with lyrics about spaceships and getting high. Acker Bill's 'Stranger On The Shore' maintains a similar feel - old fashioned but slightly unhinged in this context, the veneer papering over your nightmares.

Towards the end of the album things feel like they are barely held together in any physical sense. Melodies hang mid-air on John Martyn's glorious 'Small Hours' as Martyn's delicate vocals float weightlessly through the air. It's the sort of selection that makes these albums the treat they are.

Röyksopp appear to have interpreted the Late Night Tales a little differently. Where some end up strung out or spinning come-down dance tunes this album feels like it has been crafted for the exact point your eyelids become too heavy to force open any longer, and as they clamp shut your mind gradually shifts to another world, and Röyksopp are rather fine architects.

Late Night Tales from Röyksopp is released on Monday through EMI, available to pre-order from Amazon.co.uk on CD, LP and MP3 [affiliate links]. Check out the mini mix via Soundcloud below: 

Order: http://latenighttales.co.uk/product.php/200/r-yksopp-late-night-tales iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/late-night-tales-royksopp/id643663833 The new edition of Late Night Tales journeys to Scandinavia to invite Norwegian duo Röyksopp to delve through their record collection. Their Late Night Tales mix is eclectic, diverse and wonderful. Sliding from light folk to widescreen ambience to experimental rock to prog-pop (seasoned with the occasional guilty pleasure); it's all in the spirit of the night.

Stream: Polyethers (Jimmy Edgar Remix) - Py

Jimmy Edgar's been dropping some tight numbers for a while now (check out 'This One's For The Children' on Spotify) and this remix of Py's 'Polyethers' is pretty strong. Edgars sometimes suffers a little for a lack of vocal inspiration - his vocals can get a little tired - so it's refreshing to hear him work with someone else. 

 'Polyethers' is out through Champion Records on 30 June - listen to the Jimmy Edgar mix below:

Polyethers 30th June Champion Records - DL 'Py shows massive promise' - Q Magazine After releasing her astounding mixtape 'Tripping On Wisdom' which featured collaborations with the likes of George Fitzgerald, Throwing Snow, Breton and Raffertie last year, Py returns with the long-awaited follow up, 'Polyethers', produced by Maths Time Joy and released via Champion Records on 30th June.

Album Review: Must - Pablo Bolivar

Must is Spanish Producer Pablo Bolivar's third album and is a showcase of his dubby warm house sounds. There are hints of varying styles across the album's 55-minutes but there is also a consistent atmosphere of lush laid back Spanish vibes and very few vocals.

The album opens with the slow moving 'Rise You Demons', a track full of stumbling, echoing drum beats and gentle electronic melodies that captures the feel of a Mediterranean sunset. 'Eleven Years' is the logical next step, a slight shift in gear as the lights come on - a more measured rhythm carrying a similarly contemplative tune.

View fullsize

Must - Pablo Bolivar

With the help of Fabel, Bolivar delivers a sun kissed jazzy piece in 'Off Soft', complete with gorgeously soft percussive remedies and a gently played melodic hook. The jazz influence is retained for the vibe and composition of the slightly moody 'Diamonds', the track here that Pablo sounds most at home on - it's carefully crafted, tight and atmospheric.

Mantra provides the only vocal on 'New Order' - a track similar in feel to 'Diamonds' but the vocal adds little and if anything the track is symptomatic of Must's primary flaw - for all the attempt to vary styles and a measured length it still feels at times like it runs out of places to go. 'Keep Moving' manages to do little more than it's title suggests, a looped groove that pushes some unconstrained rhythms but little else.

But most moments here shine in their own, subtly refined way. Either side of 'Keep Moving' are 'Don't Hold' and 'Heat' - the former using progressive synths and a stomping beat to build an uplifting, funky piece of electronic music. Album closer 'Heat' is a slow ambient track assembled around the sounds of nature, insect noise and bird calls providing the foreground to a subtly emotional conclusion, and again, it's Bolivar at his best.

Must is out on 17 June through Avant Roots, pre-order on MP3 from Amazon.co.uk [affiliate link].  Stream 'Rise Your Demons' and 'Midnight Frogs' via Soundcloud below:

Here, on 'Must', Bolivar tips a nod to his love of dub but from the opening track onward we see true reflection of his wide-ranging influences. 80's disco bleeds through on opening track 'Rise Your Demons', a slo-mo track that gives way to the pensive deep house tones of 'Eleven Years' before the two sounds meet in the quirky, upbeat 'Midnight Frogs'.

Time is coming! This is the single of my forthcoming album "MUST". It will be out on June, ready for the summer season, on 2LP deluxe packaging + Download code, stay tunned! Here, on 'Must', Bolivar tips a nod to his love of dub but from the opening track onward we see true reflection of his wide-ranging influences.

Stream: Another Season - No Middle Name

Starry-eyed soft krautrock here from No Middle Name, the new nom de plume of David Bailey, one half of The Title Sequence. This is the debut single from No Middle Name due out on 8 July through Mollusc Records.

There's a lush, dreamy feel to  'Another Season' - the press release name-checks Wild Nothing and Youth Lagoon. Whilst the melodies and wandering-cloud feel of those artists is there this feels a little more electronic than either and it's rather catchy.

No Middle Name came about after a chance meeting at a garden party in Dalston led to Mollusc Records' Rory Mansielf giving Bailey the keys to Glove Box studio so he could make an album. Seven intense weeks later Bailey emerged with an album somewhat different from the acoustic material the label expected. The album is apparently similarly focused on lo-fi dream pop - we will all have to wait to hear it but in the meantime check out the single on Soundcloud below and Bailey's radio show series on Mixcloud:

Debut Single by No Middle Name Coming out July 8th Mollusc Records http://nomiddlenamemusic.tumblr.com