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.

EP Review: Adjustments - Benoit & Sergio

Following releases on DFA, Hot Creations and Visionquest this new EP is Benoit & Sergio's debut for Culprit. It is the result of some extensive bonding with Culprit founders Droog, following some long sessions discovering shared loves as broad as Paul Simon, Talking heads, Michel Gondry's video work and Kurt Vonnegut's literature. In other words, good shit.

View fullsize

Adjustments - Benoit & Sergio

The Adjustments EP is very much a release with two halves. First up, "Shake Shake" is the duo at their most playful - a coy polka piano melody scattered across their trademark semi-gymnastic bass work. Filtered and vocodered vocal snippets try and add to the track's upbeat feel but in comparison to much of their previous work this feels flat and disposable. Benoit & Sergio are best when angelic and wrapped in swirling melodies, but they can equally create fun and lively records such as "$100 Bill", as featured earlier this year on their Hot Creations release. Sadly "Shake Shake" has none of the ridiculously effects and filters of the latter.

Thankfully the title track is significantly more interesting. "Adjustments" recaptures that spectral, delicate and emotive sound that first brought them to my attention. What Benoit & Sergio do so well is make tracks about DJs and dancing that just make you want to cry. "Adjustments" acts as an instruction to whoever is playing the tunes to "make adjustments" but it may as well be about saying goodbye to your best friend - it feels that raw. A gentle melody is plucked out on a piano against a soft electronic chord sequence and a stylishly simplistic rhythm sequence. You'll probably struggle to dance to it, but that doesn't matter - it deserves your heart all the same.

Adjustments is released through Culprit now. Preview "Adjustments" via Soundcloud below: 

CP039: Benoit & Sergio - Adjustments EP a. Adjustments b. Shake Shake release date: October 7th, 2013 Culprit's 39th EP release is an altogether special affair. The masters of epic underground pop, one of the most exciting and respected songwriting/production teams in dance music, Benoit & Sergio enter the label's artistic canon in emphatic fashion.

EP Review: Bridge So Far - Benoit & Sergio

I've given a fair amount of space to Benoit & Sergio over the past year or so and that's because their EP releases have consistently been some of my favourites over that time. Following releases on thesongsays, DFA, Visionquest and Spectral Sound this new EP sees them arrive on the Hot Creations label.

As always Benoit & Sergio don't do anything massively differently from a number of other electronic producers - they just do it with more soul, and they do it better.

The a-side is built around a heavy, robotic bass line - and it's ever-so-slightly Daft Punk in sound. The track has Benoit & Sergio's trademark bruised falsetto vocals though, and they grant 'Bridge So Far' a soulful edge to the harder disco sound. It is mainly about that bass line however - it's both instantaneously catchy and cool.

Over on side-b is the funkier '$100 Bill', and it's full of twisted vocodered vocals and trebly hand-claps & drum-slaps. It also features a wonky, insatiable bass line - think a slick, alien, machine generated take on 'Billie Jean'. This is another side to Benoit & Sergio, more overtly dance-friendly than they are usually, but it demonstrates exactly what their production talent is capable of.

Benoit & Sergio put out better electronic-disco-soul-funk than anyone else and you'd be foolish to sleep on this. Despite their Washington DC-via-Berlin background Bridge So Far is incredibly French and, more importantly, incredibly good.

Bridge So Far is released via Hot Creations on 4 February. Preview via Soundcloud below:

EP Review: New Ships - Benoit & Sergio

Benoit & Sergio have become one of my favourite duos in the past year or so. Their EP releases on both Visionquest and DFA have contained moments of sheer brilliance.

View fullsize

New Ships - Benoit & Sergio​

This new release comes out on Visionquest, following up on their Where The Freaks Have No Name EP. That release featured the gloriously disgruntled love-lost-to-the-k-hole anthem 'Walk And Talk', so hopes are high for this new one...

New Ships opens with 'Lipstick & Lace' - a frisky, funk strut with vocals dedicated to an irresistible female. You know, the kind that wants to make you do the mash-potato. Benoit & Sergio's talent is always in their particular blend of warm bass with cool, metallic synths played in a funky way - as shown in great effect to the piano-embellished outro here.

In my opinion though the duo are at their best when the melodies are allowed to dominate. Which is exactly what they do on 'Not In Your Nature', a track of passive-aggressive missives. The vocals and pads are layered beautifully here, giving the sensation of swimming through the thick, queasy feeling you get in the knot of your stomach when something goes badly askew... It's strangely relaxing yet the whole song is clearly about being taken advantage of.

The EP's title track has a distinctive, prominent looping bass line that performs the foundations for some semi-liquid guitar that almost oozes and yet still feels brittle around the edges. If Daft Punk made music for a downer with massive bass it would probably sound like this, the vocal a cry for help - "So many nooses around my neck, as I stare at the sea waiting for new ships" - the music the sound of dancing on through it.

Another terrific EP. Now give me an album.

​New Ships is released through Visionquest on 15 October.

Comment: DFA's Five Best Twelves

Image source: The Quietus

I've been a member of eMusic for longer than I care to remember and they recently invited me to submit a top five list to their site from their catalogue. Rather than focusing on new bands and artists I thought I would do something a bit different and select some of the best tracks from one of the many labels on the site. One of the best things about eMusic is how easy it is to browse by label and I regularly find myself checking through the latest releases from my favourites. So which label to pick? There could only really be one choice...

DFA are obviously known for the involvement of James Murphy and their big ticket album releases for the Juan Maclean and The Rapture but there is much more to the label, including a number of fantastic 12" releases that often slip out with little fanfare. DFA and James Murphy have been a massive influence on me and my blog since 'Losing My Edge' first came out in 2002 - here I select five of the best songs from the various 12" releases DFA have put out over the years, with links to check them out on eMusic:

5. 'Two Different Ways (Original)' - Factory Floor

The most recent track on this list, 'Two Different Ways' is a synth heavy, post-industrial acid trip. I've selected it not only because it's good but also because it really captures a certain post-punk experimental spirit that the label has boasted since the beginning. Factory Floor mix live instrumentation with a lot of electronic synth work and it is that blending of rock DIY attitude and electronic avant garde that has always made the label great. This is presumably called 'Two Different Ways' because the release features two versions, the original and the 'Second Way' - a self-referential element that harks back to early DFA / LCD Soundsystem release 'Yeah', which similarly featured two versions (the 'Pretentious Version' and the 'Crass Version'). The divide here is similar - the other second version is a little subtler but I can't resist the more in your face original.

4. 'Yearning' - Black Van

'Yearning' seems too straight up to be a DFA release but somehow it came out anyway and I'm very glad it did. There isn't too much that needs to be said, this is just a really well done piece of Balearic disco. You could call it derivative but only if you have no soul - this is sunny, uplifting heaven.

3. 'Full Grown Man' - Benoit & Sergio

Benoit & Sergio are one of the artists I'm currently most excited about - they have had a couple of EPs out on DFA and every track on the EP this is taken from (Boy Trouble) is an absolute gem. Whilst Benoit & Sergio release music on dance labels and in the 12" / EP format typically used by dance music producers this isn't really dance music - it's closer to blissed out electronic pop. 'Full Grown Man' particularly, at seven-minutes long and with not much happening in it shines precisely because it does so little. It could be accused of being a mood piece, but that is fine with me - the warm 80s feel is sublime.

2. 'Gobline City (Holy Ghost! Remix)' - Panthers

Holy Ghost!'s take on Brooklyn hardcore band the Panthers' 'Goblin City' is that rare thing - a remix that is better than the original. In fact, it's so good that it is better than anything either Holy Ghost! or the Panthers have accomplished individually. Holy Ghost! probably deserve more of the credit though because most of the original gets thrown out and what you end up is nothing like a hardcore rock record but actually an aloof urban disco record but what makes it shine is the combination of the Panthers' guitar solo and the Holy Ghost! synthesised arpeggios about two thirds of the way in.

1. 'Spaghetti Circus' - Still Going

After Still Going dropped the fantastically catchy yet remarkably simply 'Still Going Theme' no-one thought they would be able to live up to it with the comeback and yet somehow they confounded expectations and dropped a follow up that was even better than that previous release. 'Spaghetti Circus' is probably the sexiest, most sunny, soulful house record I've ever heard, sounding like the music is made from pure sweat and sunblock. As with the Panthers record this is really a disco track and once again what really makes it is the fantastic guitar work - it may be perfect for those exciting summer sunsets on the white isle but it will work pretty much anywhere else too.