EP Review: The Wrap Around EP - Detroit Swindle

Detroit Swindle are Amsterdam based Lars Dales and Maarten Smeets. This, The Wrap Around EP, represents Saints & Sonnets first release since Ethyl & Huxley's popular '3 Feet High' last year.

'The Wrap Around' itself is a soulful house track. The feel is pretty straight up with warm washes and a male vocal creating summer vibe - the press release likens it to Detroit, hence the name I would imagine, but if 'The Wrap Around' inhabits any city it's a fictional one smack bang in between the motor city and Chicago. The drums and echoing atmosphere have a feel of techno about them whilst the bass and vocal are pretty much straight up house.

Unfortunately 'The Wrap Around' feels a little lost - it's not a great house track and has none of the cold mechanical soul of great techno. It seems to want to be liked just a little too much. Much better is second cut 'Pain Tomorrow' - more obviously Detroit inspired, it's a tight minimal track that retains some funk but feels considerably more sincere, a loft party, clinking-glasses, trainers-squeaking across floorboards kind of vibe. It could easily have fallen out of fellow Detroit worshippers Motor City Drum Ensemble's record box. A good thing in my book.

As Pattern Select, Milton Jackson and Mathias Schober offer up a remix of 'Pain Tomorrow' for the final track here. The first three minutes are frankly nothing but an overly long DJ lead-in but from there it gets more interesting, stripping the original back and adding some thick, heavy drum and darker synth work whilst keeping some of the space and atmosphere of the original.

The Wrap Around EP is release on Saints & Sonnets on 7 March.

Album Review: Johnny D Presents Disco Jamms Volume One - Various Artists

Johnny D's Disco Jamms is a rapid fire disco assault that manages to cram in 18 classic disco tracks from across the years into an extravagant 77-minute long celebration.

And basically it's brilliant. The mixing may be a little rudimentary, but that was the way things were back in the days of disco anyway and this set really doesn't suffer as a result. The selection of music on offer shows that at its best disco can be glorious. It's a genre that still gets a bad rep in certain quarters, not helped by the fancy dress theme parties and some overly commercialised artists that rode the sound all the way to the bank whilst simultaneously leaving the true spirit behind. For the record I truly believe the Bee Gees and Abba are two or the worst acts to grace the planet. Ever.

But there is nothing of that insipid shiny thin pop here. Cerrone's beautiful 'Look For Love' has a warm shimmering chorus that rides a rainbow unicorn to a string backing before a full two-minute percussive break. It's inventive and extravagant and soulful and real and ridiculous all at the same time. As disco retrospectives go this one isn't in the least bit precious either, so sure, you'd got the O'Jays, but you also have Klein & MBO's electro masterpiece 'Dirty Talk' followed by the large bassline heavy 'For The Same Man' by B-Beat Girls. There are moments of glorious electronic disco from the eighties that run away with my heart here. The System's 'It's Passion' is glossy funk with a fantastic spoken word jogging-on-the-spot synth heavy bridge combined with a simply massive chorus.

Most of all though disco was always about getting on up and over - triumph in the face of adversity, less showing off, more celebrating what you should to be thankful for. And that is what comes through on this album, whether on the enthused 'We're On The Right Track' by Ultra High Frequency or Lafleur's instrumental 'Dub Till We Drop'.

Don't fight it, feel it.

Johnny D Presents Disco Jamms Volume One is released on BBE on 5 March, available to pre-order from Amazon.co.uk on CD and MP3 [affiliate links].

Album Review: Future Disco Vol. 5: Downtown Express - Various

Last year's Future Disco 4 turned out to be one of the better mix albums I heard last year. Despite coming fairly late in an ongoing series it had a really strong sense of identity and multiple classic tunes. Future Disco Vol. 5 follows the mantra of if it ain't broke, don't fix it... What you have is another collection of contemporary house tracks from the current batch of hot new things, this time packages up under the subtitle Downtown Express.

So we have another winner then, right? Sort of. The problem here is two-fold:

Firstly this doesn't have any disco. Where as volume 4 had Kaine's 'Love Saves The Day' and 'Zombie Tropicana' - classic soul vocals and experimental eclecticism that encapsulated some of the original spirit of disco this latest release really just feels like a collection of recent house releases. Because of that fact there just isn't any noticeable identity.

Secondly and more importantly the quality just ain't as high. There are a few good standout tracks but nowhere near the same caliber as on the previous release.

So if it isn't exactly a killer release or a highwater-mark for the series then what is it? Mostly just a collection of decent tunes - good but unlikely to blow you away. Miguel Campbell's 'Something Special' is a case in point - it's a nice minimal but bouncy house track but nowhere near as good as his MAM collaboration I recently reviewed, which would have been a much more 'disco' choice.

There are still a few good moments, they just aren't quite as consistently essential as volume 4's best tracks were. Tensnake once again deliver the business on Tiger & Woods filtered mix of 'Need Your Lovin' and the Pitto instrumental version of T J Kong & Nuno Dos Santos' 'Something Happened' is a great tense piece of tech-house funk. Benoit & Sergio's 'Principles' is still excellent, as Benoit & Sergio frankly always are and Maceo Plex's mix of DJ T.'s 'City Life' shows once again that no-one makes techno influenced sunshine house as well as Maceo Plex.

The album only really starts to deliver as it closes though. Joakim's 'Find A Way' is given a beautiful remix by Soul Clap - aptly entitled the Soul Clap Floating remix the result is a deliriously contemplative loved-up sensation that captures the introspective coming-of-age feeling the Joakim album from which it is lifted attempted to capture in the first place. It just might be Soul Clap's finest remix to date. Similarly the Prince Language mix of Penguin Prison's rather formulaic pop house track 'Multi Millionaire' transforms the original into a suitably climatic old Chicago house tribute.

It's a shame things don't start quite as well as they finish.

Future Disco Vol. 5 is out on February 27 on Need Want, available for pre-order from Amazon.co.uk on CD and MP3 [affiliate links].

Single Review: Beautiful World - Amirali

This debut release from Iranian / Canadian producer Amirali really reminds me of the whole tech-house prog movement of the early to mid-noughties. That may feel like a bit of a backhanded compliment but the sweeping cinematic sounds and large echoing bass lines come together to make a promising debut release from Amirali.

The original is a little bit gothic, and sure, it takes leads from Booka Shade and label mates Art Department but everyone here is ultimately just singing from the same hymn sheet popularised by Depeche Mode and The Normal's 'Warm Leatherette'. As source material goes you could do worse, but it inevitably feels a little sterile in comparison to the real thing.

The original is backed with three remixes. Daniel Bortz's is more minimal with a large scale breakdown complete with pregnant pauses laced with paranoia. As Hrdvsion, Nathan Jonson turns in a starker electro-influenced mix - functional but it lacks the impact of either of any of the other versions.

Deniz Kurtel, also on Crosstown Rebels, delivers the stand out mix however. Adding in a dark bass line with distorted synths and drums packing masses of reverb it is the only version that really delivers on the promise of the original, the extra flourishes playing off the darker sounds the original feels inspired by.

Amirali's debut album is out this Spring on Crosstown Rebels. Beautiful World is out on 13 February.

Album Review: Dreams Say, View, Create, Shadow Leads - Dustin Wong

Dustin Wong - Diagonally Talking Echo from Thrill Jockey Records on Vimeo.

Dustin Wong's first solo album Infinite Love was both weird and wonderful, coming out of left field to create a bizarre concept album based around his experimental instrumental guitar work. As a double album it seemed like it would be a daunting listen but it turned out to be anything but. This follow up is shorter and therefore a little more approachable... But in reigning in the scope has it lost some of the magic?

Basically the answer is no. The shorter duration makes the album feel more focused and yet it actually feels more experimental. The music strays into more processed, fractured and electronic sounds and at times it all creates a staggering collage of noise unlike anything you have heard.

The beauty of Wong's sound is in the rhythmic warmth of it all. Each song typically consists of a passage or two that begins simply but gradually builds and layers into a more and more complex piece of music, transforming itself from something delicate and quiet to a far more triumphant conclusion. This is actually the result of Wong's recording process, which involves using pedals to loop elements throughout the song. It means the songs innevitably get increasingly complex as they progress. In fact Wong apparently recorded much this album live, using just a few overdubs to move sounds through the stereo field. The result is a dizzy mix of Eastern-influenced post-rock and folk.

Dreams Say... has some spellbinding moments and it stands up to Wong's previous solo album. It is interesting to hear his ideas gradually evolve and transform his music, often over the course of a single song, and it is this organic growth that makes his music appealing. Despite a shorter duration, I can't help but feel there is still a little too much here to not feel a bit overwhelmed. And yet the best bits shine enough that it is worth persevering. Wong's dreams are complex, overwhelming and at times beautifully uplifting - and well worth listening to.

Dreams Say, View, Create, Shadow Leads is out on 20 February on Thrill Jockey, available to pre-order on Amazon.co.uk on CD [affiliate link].