Author: Matt Oliver

Compilation Review: ‘Cream Ibiza Mixed by Above & Beyond’ (New State Music)

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★★★☆☆

Alive with shooting stars gliding through the night sky at soul juddering speed, fireworks creating roaming destinies bidding to stay with you forever, and harnessing the moment between rush and release…that’s the schedule of events expected of and delivered by Above & Beyond, their attention to quality control naturally bringing plenty of their own material into the bargain.

Bound by riff upon riff of delight, in the current arguments of cheaply tactical EDM, Above & Beyond always seem to detonate their drops and killer licks with care (and with mainstream appeal, such as on Mat Zo’s “Loop,” accounted for). Glistening delicacy also powers through with plenty in the tank (Jaytech’s re-up of “Overdrive”). Truth be told, it’s the vocals that are of most disappointment throughout. As of the genre, they’re all wistful and longing, though interpretable as depressed and clingy, and the result is that there is never an original or inspirational means of communication.

This is a particular downer when the music has one common, aim for the skies cause. And though A&B integrate Eric Prydz altering M83, later getting his mitts on Depeche Mode, outsider thinking = owning a different set of keyboards. The bass-retching elements of Mat Zo’s “The Sky,” Heatbeat/Parker & Hanson’s “Afterthought,” Norin & Rad’s “Pistol Whip” and Ronski Speed’s remix of Marc Marberg, be the ones to instantly jump out at you. If you’re in the moment, details like this won’t even register.
File under: Cosmic Gate, Arty, Genix

Album Review: The Very Best / ‘MTMTMK’ (Moshi Moshi Records)

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★★★★☆

The Very Best continue their cross-cultural club demographic that runs African vocals (with English reinforcements) and traditional dance into drum machine booms, R&B jumps, whack-job electro licks and auto-tuned effects, managed successfully in a far from subtle integration of the indigenous and the ‘upfront’. In fact it’s pleasing how brash Esau Mwamwaya and Johan Hugo are, and how the fusion from the Radioclit protégées and Pitchfork headliners doesn’t dither when it comes to putting soothing calls to arms in the thick of the action. Aside from “Bantu” as the solitary mountain-top incantation mindful of upholding heritage from harm, it keeps on the gas pedal throughout, emitting colorful fumes as it goes.

Despite the bedrock of heavy bass, which sides more with booty bass and juke over the old style dub of “Mghetto” that you might be expecting, everything is cause for rejoice. “Kondaine” bounds like a Pixar character to infectiously cheesy riffs, “Moto” brings out euphoria like it’s the funkiest national anthem ever composed, and regardless of the language barrier, something tells you they’re not spouting clichés about how tonight is gonna be the time of your life because the world implodes tomorrow. With that commercial know-how also present (for better or worse – okay, bottles are popped on the remix of “Rudeboy”), the carnival of MTMTMK is worth checking for how to put twists on the popular.
File under: Spoek Mathambo, K’Naan, Buraka Som Sistema

Compilation Review: ‘Cutting Edge: Luke Solomon’ (D-Edge)

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★★★★☆

If Cutting Edge stands for throwing in any number of styles, Luke Solomon is at the sharp end. The mixing of the man whose career spans three decades and had made Music for Freaks and Classic tracks with Derrick Carter, is not 100%, seamlessly crash hot, and the selection takes on a varied pattern that’s entirely down to intuition. But all of the above statistics must mean the UK club connoisseur has an inkling as to what he’s doing.

After a ponderous deep tech-house warm-up including his own work as The Digital Kid, Red Rack’em’s filthy “How I Program” gets the mix up and involved, seized upon by Kris Wadsworth and Crooked Man stepping into twitchy deep house shoes with plenty of kick in them. Some slinky vocal house burning with an original Chicago tinge then takes its turn, settling the mix into a warming shake that hustles on the low. Solomon acts up again with the excellent introduction of Andy Meecham’s acid kneecapping “Morning Banger” and Iz & Diz’s “Juvenated,” creeping with a boom of a bassline through gritted teeth.

Then the funk stages a fight back with Brett Johnson’s definition of off-the-hook, before another surprise move has the Flo-Rida-sharing “I Really Do Believe” closing with an acid-funk hula-hoop. Solomon’s score: rough around the you-know-what, but never blunted.
File under: Jonny Fiasco, Kink, Freaks

Album Review: Room E / ‘Penguin Child’ (Proper Songs)

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★★★☆☆

Faced with the prospect of chillwave’s enclave but refusing to be bogged down or tagged as slurred and indistinct, Room E is like an inverse equivalent of Room 101. Staffed by San Diego’s man on the door, Penguin Child groups all of your favorite things together in a plush, buoyant space. Here you will you find the sun shining and birds singing, electronic kaleidoscopes to both ease and heighten your lightheadedness, mellow background beats for smiling relaxation, and therapy for when you need it most.

In places the analogue-digital awakenings are like RJD2 getting high on the dustiness of freshly dug records (hip-hop-ish nod “Mimosa”), declaring love and peace for both a personal folk fellowship and the LA beats scene. Neo-soul bleach-outs “Sibling” and “Letter Opener” transfer from happy-go-lucky to super slick, as about half way the album goes from sunning itself to taking a quick spin round the city as a humble philanthropist. Passing funk down-and-outs “Ziptie” and “Mainline to the Core”, it returns home, mesmerized by the lapping of log fire flames.

As an unburdened childhood reminisce, Penguin Child can gambol toward the threshold of muzak: “Earl Grey” auditions for the soundtrack for when you’re put on hold or pushing around your shopping trolley. Overall, Room E’s always looking toward the positive means the after party comedown has a new resident orchestrator.
File under: Nowhere Man, Caribou, Four Tet