juan maclean
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50. Slow Build - The Range
49. Lighting Sparked - Dillon
48. Kind Of…Sometimes…Maybe - Jessie Ware
47. Girl - Jamie xx
46. Sick Beat - Kero Kero Bonito
45. Call My Name - Haerts
44. Pretty Girls - Little Dragon
43. A Place Called Space - The Juan Maclean
42. Never Work For Free - Tennis
41. Pieces - Paperwhite
After a five year wait The Juan Maclean are back again with In A Dream, their third full-length album, and with James Murphy's flagship DFA project LCD Soundsystem no longer in existence it feels like this is all the more an important release.
After the experimental high-concept introduction of debut album Less Than Human, The Future Will Come felt more down to earth, infected with smart 80s angled pop and nods to techno. Less conceptual, the seemingly proper house workout Happy House felt a little tagged onto the end, almost an afterthought (albeit a glorious one). In comparison In A Dream is a little more balanced - it is drenched in the stylings of Moroder but oscillates between conceptual pop songs and dance floor inspired moments.
In A Dream puts its best foot forward: opening track A Place Called Space, previewed before the album's release, is an eight-minute epic acid-prog track, packed with guitar riffs, pulsating rhythms and reverberating synths. It is a hell of a statement to open an album with and in contrast I've Waited For So Long, which follows, feels clinical - monochromatic synth pop - and you rather suspect that is the point.
There are ways in which In A Dream feels even more human than The Juan Maclean. On Love Stops Here, Maclean's vocals are more exposed and natural than ever, as he laments love gone wrong against a pure riff borrowed almost directly from New Order. Maclean's musical partner-in-crime Nancy Whang shines as always, tracks like Here I Am bubbling with the kind of minimal house efficiency Maclean nails time and time again whilst Whang's lyrics betray her emotions even if the vocal delivery remains as aloof as ever.
Between them The Juan Maclean have created another impeccably well produced album: it is effortlessly tastefully put together. You can't help but notice the little details because everything here, bar that opening track, is an exercise is considered minimalism. It is difficult not to long for a little bit more excess to contrast with so much cleanliness. And yet as In A Dream closes on the humanist piano riffs of The Sun Will Never Set On Our Love, echoing early track Dance With Me, it's hard not to love this album anyway... It's just as clear as ever that The Juan Maclean make better music than they do albums.
The new track from The Juan Maclean's forthcoming In A Dream, out in September. Like getting lost in the collective mind-sphere of everyone you know and love. Bring on the prog-house revolution.
This fantastic new split single from DFA showcases some inspirational new stuff from label stalwarts The Juan Maclean and Shit Robot. Neither song significantly changes the sound each artist has been pushing recently but both feel like they've been honed to close to perfection.
The Juan Maclean's "Feel Like Movin'" features vocals from regular collaborator and (technically ex-) LCD Soundsystem member Nancy Whang, who delivers the kind of semi-deadpan, semi-loved up vocal she used on The Juan Maclean's "Happy House". The track is an upbeat twisted piano-house track full of uplifting and optimistic vibes. Whang's vocals plead you to dance and the track has a weird parallel to The Juan Maclean's beautiful "Dance With Me". Where the latter was aloof but touching, robotics trying to break through into humanity, this is the opposite: sweaty and familiar and up-close. "So let your heart get crazy / and let your head get dizzy / let yourself get busy, it's easy" calls Whang, probably as she disappears into the throng of the dancefloor. It's the rushing intimacy that only comes from lost evenings with lost boundaries.
Shit Robot's "We Got A Love" features comedian and musician Reggie Watts and comes from a similar place but it is a little more understated. Deep throbbing drums and a dubby bass create a momentum whilst the piano loop recaptures early-90s urban distance. Watts' vocal is scattershot and adlibbed, flipping from falsetto to baritone and back within the same verse. It feels like one of Shit Robot's most fully realised tracks since the excellent "Simple Things (Work It Out)".
Both The Juan Maclean and Shit Robot are due full releases in 2014. Feel Like Movin’ / We Got A Love is out now through DFA and is limited to 500 stamped and numbered copies. Grab the digital release of "Feel Like Movin'" and "We Got A Love" from Amazon.co.uk [affiliate links].
My Favorite Robot have managed to build up both a significant following for their musical output and a significant record label since starting in 2009. Back in the early days they shared office space with Jonny White and so it feels fitting that this new EP is coming it on White's No. 19 label, to be followed with an album on the label later in the year.
Looking For Frost is a slice of moody electro, full of spectral melodies and ambient pads. The track is glassy and withdrawn in its entrance, building to a stark electronic melody and a haunting vocal refrain, "sometimes I get the feeling something ain't right". Slow to build but with some heavy bass that kicks in halfway through, once the track gets going this bass propels it forward, creating a futuristic, alienated and robotic feeling atmosphere.
Mixes come from the DFA's Juan Maclean and Mexico's Louie Fresco. Juan Maclean's been specialising in introducing humanity to robotic music for years and he does just that here - the looped vocal framed in glitchy sounds while Maclean tweaks a bass line that gives the track a more grounded feel. Trebly handclaps lend the track a hint of vintage whilst that distorted bass gives a heavy, funky feel that builds on the original effectively.
Louie Fresco has provided two mixes, a straight-up remix and a digital exclusive dub. The remix is short on vocals, has a slow build with a series of 80s effects, additional live percussion and some acid that gives the track a more intense edge. The dub removes even more of the vocal and puts the groove front and centre. Both are good but the Juan Maclean mix remains my pick.
Looking For Frost is out on No. 19 Music on 20 May.
