EP Review: Got Me Moving - Sinden presents The Crystal System

Holy hot disco body music seeps out of every poor of this new collaboration from Sinden and Azari & III vocalist Starving Yet Full in the second track from new collaborative project The Crystal System.

We've not heard much from Azari & III in some time and, as far as I know, Sinden in even longer. This release feels like a rebirth for both of them. Taking much of the disco influenced sound of Azari & III the new outfit apply that sensibility to a tighter sound aimed more exclusively at the dancefloor.

The original track is a lean house track constructed around thick 4/4 drum kicks and Starving Yet Full's funky disco-influenced vocals. It does what it needs to and little more - big room sounds with soul - and works exactly because of that restraint.

Four remixes also feature on this release. Sonny Fodera's is a taught, bass first take that reigns things in further to create a cool basement feel for darker portions of the night. Mickey Kojak's mix is a stripped back techno influenced take whilst the Odysseus Dark House mix takes things into full-on tech-house territory, full of deep synth stabs and a reverb drenched vocal bridge. Finally the Pilo Remix is more beat-orientated, a shuffling beat carving out a dark atmosphere amid echoing vocals and stark melodies.

All mixes are likely to have their fans and this release comes together to create a solid introduction for The Crystal System.

Got Me Moving is out now on Sweat It Out. Check out the original mix below:

Sinden presents The Crystal System Feat SYF - Got Me Moving forthcoming on Sweat It Out Co-written with Nick Hook Remixes coming soon from Sonny Fodera, Odysseus, Mikey Kojak & Pilo More material to follow !

Album Review: The Incline Of Western Salivation Pt III - Alixander III

The Alixander III behind this release would actually be Alphonse Alixander Lanza III, who is almost certainly better known to you as the III in disco-house outfit Azari & III. The Incline Of Western Salivation Pt III is his first full length debut release and it kicks pretty much everything from his other outfit at the door.

Some facts about The Incline:

• It's long, although nowhere near as long as the press release suggests - 92 minutes in comparison to the claimed "almost 2 hours". Maybe it just felt that long. I'm pretty sure it did.

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The Incline Of Western Salivation Pt III - Alixander III

• The album is almost entirely vocal-free and if you come in expecting anything like the pop-dance tracks of Azari & III you'll find yourself a long way from Kansas. Toto. This is deep, dark, trippy techno and tech-house.

• At its best The Incline feels like an abandonment of inhibition, and that seems very much to be the ambition of its creator. 'Donuts' is psychedelic, intense and intimate - a tight, sweaty mess of electronic squelches and out-of-phase melodies.

• This album seems to signify a growing interest in minimal techno and electronic music. Minimal was frequently tipped for the big time (there's an oxymoron) back in the mid-noughties but it never really caught-on. I'm still not convinced it will - it just doesn't have the potential for mainstream cross-over that almost ever other genre does, by definition not much happens. That doesn't seem to deter the number of producers churning it out - in turns of output alone minimal electronic music only seems to be growing.

• Ultimately some of this is good, but a lot of it feels pointless. Dress it up as "challenging" if you want, I just don't buy it. I've listened to and covered plenty of minimal, techno and IDM over the years and it only really becomes anything more than drug music when you start to actually do something with it. Jaar skirts around jazz and soul, Stott slows it the fuck down and fills it with paranoia, Villalobos does everything he possibly can to it.

The Incline Of Western Salivation Pt III cares about me about as much as a three-year-old on Ribena and the old-style, artificially-coloured blue smarties. Stop beating me round the head and let me learn to give a shit. For every five minutes of interesting production work, texture and melody here there are another fifteen that just might make you view the pains of tinnitus in a whole new light. 

In conclusion:

• 90-minutes is too much.

• Ending on a 23-minute track is too much.

• 90-minutes is too much.

• Maybe I'm getting too old for this.

The Incline Of Western Salivation Pt III out on 7 December, available to pre-order on MP3 from Amazon.co.uk [affiliate link].

Competition: Win tickets for Azari & III album launch at XOYO

Azari & III had my attention back when they collaborated with Friendly Fires on the rather fabulous 'Stay Here'. Since then they've impressed with their lush takes on vintage house, particularly 'Reckless (With Your Love)'.

Their eponymous début album drops next Monday on Loose Lips and to celebrate the band will be playing live at a launch party in London's XOYO on Thursday 11 August.

You can buy tickets here but BlackPlastic are giving away a pair of tickets. To be in with a chance of winning all you need to do is send an email to  [competition now closed] with the subject line 'I'm too hip to pay, innit'. Please include your full name so I can get you added to the guestlist.

Competition closes at midnight on Thursday 4 August, the winner will be notified by email.

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