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.

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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.

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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.

The Obligatory Best of 2010 List - Part Two

Following on from Part One, here they are... Our favourite nine albums of 2010:

9. Crooks & Lovers - Mount Kimbie

This year saw dub step evolve. Having previously felt like an excuse for people who should know better to listen to garage some of the genre's pioneers began to, well, actually pioneer. And the innovation really came from combining the music with other genres. Mount Kimbie's debut is a perfect example - tempered with a bit of intelligent soul you suddenly had a classic on your hands, particularly on the standout 'Before I Move Off'.

8. Total Life Forever - Foals

It shouldn't really have worked... Following their acclaimed status prior to the release of their debut album (and subsequent fall from grace when it disappointed some), Foals returned with a more melodic, accessible and populist album. And it was also the best thing they have produced yet.

Criticism has been levelled at Total Life Forever on the basis that it contains too many songs to appeal to summer festival goers. Which basically means it has too many songs people will actually like. Go figure.

By stripping back the math-rock and building some actual songs Foals made an album containing several of this year's best songs. And it isn't just the sings that shine - the production work from Luke Smith is sublime - a gorgeous, melancholic, sun-bleached feeling runs through the record from the dip-in-the-pool-refreshment of 'Blue Blood' through to the desperate 'What Remains'. With not just one but two completely killer tracks ('Spanish Sahara' and '2 Trees') Total Life Forever is already shaping up to be one of 2010's most overlooked albums in the end of year roundups.

7. InnerSpeaker - Tame Imapala

Whatever you think of Tame Impala - little more than plunderers of the past or innovators kick starting a new genre - it's difficult not to get caught up in it all. Sure, the production is epic - thick basslines, rhythms punched out of solid steel and guitars that encircle the listener in proggy bliss - but it is the songs that will keep you coming back, particularly the apathetic bluesy closer 'I Don't Mind'... It's the stoner equivalent of La Roux's 'Bulletproof' and the weird rave bit halfway through never fails to surprise. Genius.

6. Black City - Matthew Dear

Potentially Dear's magnum-opus, Black City builds on everything that has come before and turns it into something original. Darker than ever, it straddles a variety of emotions, at turns alienated, sexually depraved and wounded and needy. 'You Put A Smell On Me' is like Nine Inch Nail's 'Closer' re-made for 2010 - pure, unadulterated filth of the sort that will have you singing things you really shouldn't in public.

5. The Suburbs - Arcade Fire

BlackPlastic still isn't sure if The Suburbs is as good as either of the last two Arcade Fire albums but the fact that the question even lingers means this is an album that deserves a place on the list. A cleaner and sparser record, but potentially all the more weighty for it. On first listen it seemed to lack stand out moments but repeated listens just demonstrate that this is simply because every track is a highlight.  

4. Klavierwerke - James Blake

Not an album but still one of this year's most significant releases, James Blake seems to be making it his personal mission to upset hardcore dub step fans by tearing up the rule book, taking the genre's best ideas and running off to make something entirely new with them. 'I Only Know (What I Know Now)' is the sound of a man learning from his past mistakes. It is also this year's most emotive five minutes.

3. Vampires With Dreaming Kids / Color Your Life - Twin Sister

Not an album but really a double pack EP, this nonetheless was the sound of one of 2010's most promising bands. With the stripped back aesthetic of the XX, the rawness of early Yeah Yeah Yeahs and what sounds like sterling taste in 1980s pop music at their best the influences combine to make something marvellous, as on the slow burning 'The Other Side of Your Face'. Twin Sister will be ones to watch in 2011.

2. This Is Happening - LCD Soundsystem

If albums were judged on artwork alone This Is Happening would have owned this year. With its minimal type combined with that picture of James Murphy flying through the air in his suit it really felt like a statement of intent.

Whatever. This Is Happening is regardless one of the best things to come out of any stereo this year. With greater focus than Sound of Silver LCD's latest release felt more like a proper album. And with the monstrous bass of 'Dance Yrself Clean', the middle-aged-guy-having-an-epiphany gut-wrencher that is 'All I Want' and the subtly epic 'Home' it also had the tunes. It may not have another 'Someone Great' but it's the sound of one of our times' best bands all grown up.

1. Cosmogramma - Flying Lotus

It says a lot when a record has increasing amounts of praise heaped on it the longer it has been out. He may not have won a Grammy but he has made 2010's best album - a record that fuses genres like they don't even matter. The J Dilla comparisons are perhaps inevitable but Cosmogramma is no mere re-tread - it demonstrates that Flying Lots is one of the most innovative producers of our time.

So what are your thoughts? What did we miss?