EP Review: Booty Jazz EP - Jupiter Jazz

short clip of Maceo Plex & Danny Daze aka JUPITER JAZZ show you how to really ride a scooter, gangsta style! "Shake It Mama" by Jupiter Jazz - Ellum

This new EP from Jupiter Jazz should come with a health warning: it's more than just a little bit sick. Coming on Maceo Plex's Ellum, Jupiter Jazz are actually Danny Daze and Maceo Plex himself and this EP appears to be a tribute to the seedier side of nightclubbing.

Booty Jazz is a bit of a change of tactic for Maceo Plex - this EP has a heavy, funky vibe that feels a long way for the heady, tech-filtered elastic-house he has been focusing on recently. In places it's as inspired by electro as house.

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​Booty Jazz EP - Jupiter Jazz

Opener Shake It Mama lays down slabs of grimy thick bass and 808s whilst mixing in samples from Zapp's 1980 electro-funk classic More Bounce To The Ounce. It's a rude, upfront electro record that boasts a cocky simplicity that doesn't leave even when the sample drops back, leaving an instrumental final-third of raw groove.

Technology is more introverted, a smooth techno-ride with hushed vocals that give way to some wild bass and synth melodies. It's cool, sensual and minimal to the rough stuff of the EP's opener.

Final track Good Girl is dark and sleazy - the most sexually depraved sounding track since Matthew Dear's excellent You Put A Smell On Me. More hard 808s give the rhythm a Planet Rock feel but with plenty of hi-hats, whilst spaced out synths play out a dreamy, seductive melody.

Maceo Plex has been knocking out releases at quite a rate recently but this is certainly one of his best in a while. The dark, seedy sound of this Danny Daze collaboration suiting his trademark production style. More please.

​The Booty Jazz EP is out now on Ellum Audio.

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].

EP Review: Love Somebody Else - Maceo Plex & Jon Dasilva

​Every new release from Maceo Plex these days sounds just a little bit more infatuated with standard house music of the Balearic variety. This latest EP might be the culmination of that trend, for it is inspired on a remix by Jon Dasilva, a DJ pretty synonymous with that sort of Balearic house.

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​Love Somebody Else - Maceo Plex

Inspired by a Dasilva remix from the early 90s, 'You Gonna Make Me Love Somebody Else' by Colourblind (itself a cover of the original disco track by Jones Girls), Maceo Plex headed into the studio with Jon Dasilva to record a new version. They have even managed to track down Joi Cardwell, the singer on the original cover.

The result, 'Love Somebody Else', is a lovely warm house record. It's perfect for the end of the summer season. Maceo's influence is audible in the tough, elastic bassline and big, ambient pads in the background but other than that the duo play it straight.

The other side of this release is another cover. 'Future Musik' is a tribute to a Closer Musik track that never got released. The Closer Musik duo Dirk Leyers & Matias Aguayo released a number of tracks through Kompact ten years ago. Maceo's take feels closer to this taught sounds of his debut album - a calm disrupted by a prominent bassline that gives the whole piece a feeling of robotic soul.

Love Somebody Else is released through Ellum Audio on 24 September, preview both tracks on the snippet below:​

Album Review: Dimitri From Paris Back In The House - Dimitri From Paris

​Dimitri From Paris seems to have been around for an absolute age, long flaunting the kind of flamboyant disco that has recently come back in to vogue. The likes of Future Disco have attempted to lay claim to this style of music over the past half a decade and so it is easy to forget that much of France has been playing disco influenced house since the mid-90s.

This double CD set is actually two separate mixes. The first is entitled A Night at The Horse & Groom and was recorded live in London whilst the second, A Night at Dim's Mansion was recorded in the studio.

Stylistically the mixes are actually remarkably similar and if anything the latter of the two feels a bit more intense, capturing the sweaty ambience of the nightclub despite being laid down in the studio.

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​Back In The House - Dimitri From Paris

The track list across the complete album is fairly exhaustive, taking in a total of 38 tracks. And with a focus as broad as Dimitri's it inevitably feels a little scattershot at times, a mixture of new classics rubbing shoulders with the genuine article in a way that at times feels a little like tokenism.

The first set eases things in gently with Soul Clap's soulful 'Take It Slow' opening the mix, shortly followed by the always excellent 'Love Saves The Day' by Kaine and Kathy Diamond - here given a polish by the equally brilliant Mario Basanov.

And there is an undeniable danger here that Dimitri lets the contemporary talent outshine the classics - Morgan Geist may not exactly be a young upstart but his first two Storm Queen singles both feature here and despite their recency they are as strong as anything else featured. Maceo Plex also features twice in the first mix, his chunky, thick bass lines on 'Can't Leave You' almost certainly creating a massive reaction from the crowd. It's difficult not to simply wish you had a mix from either of these modern masters.

Yet Dimitri's sets are both undeniably good, particularly where they embrace the past in equal measure with the future. The second disc takes in Marshall Jefferson, KC Flightt, Holy Ghost!, Sébastien Tellier and even Dan Hartman's 'Relight My Fire'.

Sure, it may all be a little obvious but that is kind of the point. If you want a finger-on-the-pulse mix then you would be unlikely to consider a Defected release anyway. If you want a set of familiar tracks that has been put together with an audible degree of care and attention
to grease the wheels of the remaining summer weeks then you could do much worse.

Dimitri From Paris Back In The House is released through Defected on Monday, available to pre-order from Amazon.co.uk on CD and MP3.​

Single Review: Frisky - Maceo Plex

Image source: WildbloodMore understated funk laced tech-house gallantry from Maceo Plex single on Crosstown Rebels. A Maceo release is generally always worth a listen and this one is no exception, despite some track names that are more than just a little lame.

'Frisky' is muted in atmosphere so whilst the name conjures up visions of Lynx adverts and sticky Jaeger coated dance floors it is actually something quite different. This is less collective euphoria, more mutual alienation and, a slightly mis-placed spoken word moment aside ("Sometimes you got to get loose, feel frisky") it totally works. It's the house equivalent of a long wordless car journey.

B-side 'Sex Appeal' is a different beast - it's still classy in comparison to its name but this time it is at least descriptive of the subject matter. This is a bumpy, tweaking and emotive piece of acid house. What Maceo Plex has been doing so well recently is bring a warmth and depth to pretty straight forward house and techno, and that is exactly what he does here. The acid is jacking but this is a really full, sophisticated take on the sound. The heavily filtered male vocals may be a touch too much for some though and a dub that strips them back a little would be welcome.

Frisky is out now on Crosstown Rebels, available from Amazon.co.uk on MP3 [affiliate link].