Album Review: Future Disco Vol. 8 - Various Artists

Needwant are back with the next entry in their long-running Future Disco series. Entitled Nighttime Networks, the eighth entry is a laid back, more minimal yet still groovy entry.

Andras Fox opens the mix with Your Life, a loose cut full of jazzy touches, sweeping string and and looping keys. It's a subtle and gentle starting point. Much of what remains follows on from that template - this is the least overtly soulful entry in the series yet, drawing more from deep house than the disco that has inspired most of the previous entries. Dippin' In from Ron Basejam and Danielle Moore plays a background of soft keys and shuffling drum beats beneath Moore's vocal.

Whilst the subtlety of much of the material means that Nighttime Networks lacks any real tent-pole moments there are still some standouts. The Chopstick and Johnjon remix of Zoot Woman's Don't Tear Yourself Apart is a refined slice of rhythmic electronic pop, full of autumnal hues. VIMES gorgeous track Celestial is given a make-over on a Gardens of God remix - falsetto vocals, strummed bass and plenty of manipulated effects giving the track a dreamy, spaced-out feeling.

James Zabiella gives Hot Chip's How Do You Do an electric body music makeover - tough drums and basslines reign supreme until the familiar chords kick in. It is another moment that says a lot about the direction this album has taken - stripped, meticulous and designed to make you move.

Future Disco albums often seem to end with a pair of vocal tracks that sit apart from the rest of the album and, in this regard at least, Nighttime Networks is no different. Portable's Surrender is a horizontal slice of electronic melancholy - loose electronic bass and flute provide a backing to a vocal describing giving in - you are left to you own mind what we are giving in to (battle? Love? Sleep?!). The album closes with the similarly downbeat Something by Weval, which sounds like Hot Chip with a hangover. In other words it is human, sad and glorious electronic music and a fitting if overtly dejected conclusion to the album.

Future Disco 8 is without doubt an unusual entry to the series, but the quality of the music and the pacing and fairly undeniably great. An album to dance to, but also one to make you happy think and feel.

Future Disco Vol. 8 - Nighttime Networks is released through Needwant on 20 April. Pre-order from Amazon.co.uk on CD and MP3 [affiliate links].

Album Review: Future Disco Vol. 7 - Various

The Future Disco series from Needwant has been running for so long now that it feels like it is reaching that difficult, slightly flabby middle age period on this, the seventh in the series. The label continue to put out decent material but the nu-disco scene feels a little less sprightly than it once did and it is difficult not to feel that coming through.

View fullsize

Future Disco Vol. 7

Future Disco Vol. 7 is cast in tribute to those that make it through to the end, the obligitory strap line this time proudly claiming "’Til The lights Come Up". It's a mentality Future Disco resident Sean Brosnan appears to take to heart, because much of the best material is saved for the album's close making the opening half feel like a bit of a slog. Ejeca's starry-eyed rave anthem Together still feels just as youthful but it is sandwiched between so much by-the-numbers female vocal house (H.O.S.H.'s Disc Jockey) and trance influenced groove (Mirror Mirror's Kaleidoscope) it numbs the ears. Even Benoit & Sergio fail to turn things around, Shake Shake still not delivering anything like their previous highs.

It isn't until the more considered second half that Vol. 7 starts to get interesting. The DJ Koze mix of Mount Kimbie's Made To Stray is unexpected and ushers in a more constrained and slightly melancholic atmosphere. Both Naughty, by Names In Lights, and the Outboxx mix of Clouds by Crazy P feel understated - tracks for those that really want to dance. When James Fox shows up with Holding On (NYC Mix) it therefore feels like the album has earned a moment of self-encouraging reflection, and it gets it.

View fullsize

Sean Brosnan

From there, as is often the case with Future Disco albums, things are seen to a close with a series of beautiful moments. Templehof's Drake is played as a soulful electronic bed to the looped vocals from Holding On, creating a wonderful momentary pause. Ada's cover version of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Maps, here remixed by Michael Mayer and Tobias Thomas, is similarly restrained, even if it will never make you feel as much as Karen O's staggering original. Downtown Party Network's goosebump-inducing 'Space Me Out' features in its Mario Basanov remixed form and it feels like a real end-of-the-night moment. The actual finale is Tale Of Us & Clockwork's subtler but equally introspective Lost Keys.

So in the end, Future Disco Vol. 7 brings it back, but that first half feels like this is a label compilation that could do with being more prudent with its own catalogue, looking afield more often for inspiration.

Future Disco Vol. 7 is released on Monday through Needwant, available to pre-order from Amazon.co.uk on CD [affiliate link]. Check out the album mini mix on Soundcloud:

Too early to go home, too late to stay still... The award winning Future Disco series sets the tone for 2014 with their seventh instalment 'Til The Lights COME Up'. After a successful third summer residency in conjunction with Carl Cox at Space in Ibiza, Future Disco's Sean Brosnan delivers a seventeen track compendium that pays tribute to those that keep pace until the end of the night.

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: Future Disco Vol. 6: Night Moves - Various

It's that time of year again - we're approaching the end of winter and the beginning of spring and as a soundtrack we have the latest offering in Needwant's Future Disco series.

The last Future Disco album was good enough to be enjoyable but didn't quite hit the peaks of Future Disco Vol. 4, so the pressure is on for Vol. 5, subtitled Night Moves, to mark a return to form.

First things first: the disco is back. Where Vol. 5 became lost in the corridors of house music Night Moves is a little more focused again. Miguel Campbell's Not That Kind Of Girl, a mid-tempo house track, opens but Mario Basanov's mix of Playground by MotorCitySoul is filtered but boasting a funky b-line and some lush guitar picking. From here Bonar Bradberry drops the lights on Loose Grip, a deep, locked groove with a celebratory hands-in-the-air break.

The album keeps things deep through to an exclusive edit of A/Just/Ted's futuristic sounding A Brighter Light, a track that layers minimal synths over a soulful vocal, culminating in a juxtaposed nod to early nineties house. Groove Armada's Always Take Me Higher is a continuation of their recent experiments with rave and whilst it marks the point the album strays furthest from disco it's difficult not to enjoy the rounded drum kicks and stretched bass sound. following that Maceo Plex's take on Laura Jones' Love In Me is pure futurism - Maceo's trademark elastic bass applied to Jones' iconic track to create a tent pole moment.

Needwant's own release Return It by Kim Ann Foxman offers a more melodic, disco sound - a warm, acid vocal track that perfectly blends to past and the future. Crosstown Rebels' Francesca Lombardo, whom I've praised before, gets a worthy appearance in the form of progressive Sofiel, mixing in to Crazy P's fantastic disco-ballad Heartbreaker.

The album draws to a close with Satin Jackets' Balearic Make Me Feel Good, featuring sunny guitar licks and hot looping vocals, and Marius Varied's Vallefaret. It's a well pitch end, with the piano keys and gently looping drums creating a soft-filtered tribute to dancing outside in the hot evening air before the delicate female vocal of final track Clair de Lune by Flight Facilities finally drop in. For the record I'd kill to hear someone drop a sax solo on Vallefaret. Golden.

Overall Future Disco Vol. 6 is another quality release in the series, and it benefits from a slightly tighter focus than the last entry. There are still probably as many tracks here you'll know as ones you don't, but it's a nice way to consume some of the past year's best disco influenced electronic music.

​Future Disco Vol. 6: Night Moves is released through Needwant on 4 March, available for 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].