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: