★★★★☆
Wake up and get a whiff of this legendary house personality’s beans, sniffing at decadence but wanting you to breathe in and summon architects of the 303 and 808. Mr. C being one of that very ilk himself, a sustained UK representer getting punchy on the drums while sinewy nip and tuck rhythms loop until they’ve braided your brain and given the tunes their robustness.
Bringing a little Ebenezer Goode to the otherwise stoic acid stroll “The Future” after “Open Up” dances and prances to classic glam house, “War Games” is precisely the kind of squelching, shifty jacker that would have once been presumed the work of another entity. “Can’t Get Enough” lets red light sleaze sneak into its cow-belled lair of wickedness as C welcomes you with pointed tail and pitchfork, then takes you to your leader as self-help instructional “Synchronicity” exits the darkness.
Only the fullness of sound and a lack of vinyl crackle/needle fluff separate these from being ’88 rediscoveries. You don’t think it has set out to be a retrospective LP, but the reverence is excellent, going on to cover the Moroder-ish “The Hunt” and battlestar electro pair “Step It Up” and “Interaction” (which go some way to explaining that pretty naff sleeve). Something for the dance floor to really absorb and take stock of when all it can see is passing cellular glow and the flash of a CDJ.
File under: Evil Eddie Richards, Dave Clarke, Richard Sen