EP Review: A Brighter Light - A/Jus/Ted

A Brighter Light is the debut release from duo A/Jus/Ted, otherwise known as Justin Strauss and Teddy Stuart. Strauss and Stuart met last year and they have a range of engineering, production and remix experience across artists as diverse as Lenny Kravitz and LCD Soundsystem. I first heard this track on Future Disco Vol. 6, on which it was a highlight, but it is now out on its own.

View fullsize

​A Brighter Light - A/Jus/Ted

As A/Jus/Ted they are making synth-led, disco influenced house music. The original track has a crisp edge - the synths provide a progressive feel while a proto-house bass line provides a human counter-point, elegantly grounding the track. Jeremy Glenn's vocals scatter the song with a further layer of sunshine, creating a soulful but forward looking record.

Lars Vegas, fresh off of his own release The Game, provides the first remix and takes it into deeper territory. It reflects his affection for deeper classic house, the vocals still the track's centre but a cool drop leads into thick bass and a layer of reverb. It's a more functional mix, and its simplicity serves the track well.

Along with an instrumental on the digital release the final mix comes from A/Jus/Ted themselves, who strip the track right back and lock into an acid groove. They continue to make use of the vocal but it's a much deeper track than either of the other versions and it runs with the progressive cues of the original to create a tech-house piece more suited for sun-up than sun-down.

​A Brighter Light is out now on Under the Shade.

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].