COMPILATIONSREVIEWS 8.0 Jaymo & Andy George
Moda Black Vol. II Moda Black Back in Black and looking sharp
Optimo The Underground Sound of Glasgow Mixed by JD Twitch Glasgow Underground
9.0 Glasgow kiss
THESE days, the term “underground” might be diluted when talking about “deep house” — the Beatport defini- tion of the genre, anyway — but in Glasgow, according to one of the minds behind the legendary Optimo events at Sub Club, JD Twitch, under- ground music, in its purest sense, is very much alive and well. Hence why, for the first in a series of mix compilations from Glasgow Underground which will see each DJ focus on the grass roots of their city’s electronic scene, he’s been asked to, in true Optimo style, showcase the more subterranean styles fuelling Scotland’s industrial capital. Started in ’97, driven by a desire to subvert musical norms, Optimo, which wound down as a weekly Sunday night event in April 2010, was (still is) about taking risks and avoiding exclusivity, serving as a catalyst for a mini sub-cultural revolution during the early ‘00s where techno met electroclash, ‘80s pop met punk funk and where hipsters rubbed shoulders with hardened ravers. Now as just a label and a DJ/produc- tion partnership, Twitch and Wilkes’ Optimo has continued on along the
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same path, refusing to rest on the cult status offered to the anthems they helped define within the circle they once owned — Blondie, Arthur Rus- sell, Lee Hazelwood, Basic Channel, Sparks — while still focusing on the rawer, more obscure sounds of the dancefloor. Throwing together off-kilter house, techno and disco underlined by its industrial, at times beatnik but always timeless aesthetic, and making it work, ‘The Underground Sound of Glasgow’ does what Twitch has always done, only this time to the nth degree, shining a light on the lesser-known exceptional talents of his hometown. With one eye on the future, he pres- ents Naum Gabo, HaHaHa and Auntie Flo, who all offer a classy UK funky/ garage touch, while the likes of 6th Borough Project, Gary Beck and Funk D’Void represent a more traditional Glasgow contingent, all thrown to- gether with the bumping, full throttle force you’d expect from a man like Twitch. ‘The Underground Sound of Glasgow’ really is a revelation. Adam Saville
8.0 MK
In the House Defected Perfected
Realising most of his mates use Ableton to make podcasts rather than mixing live, Detroit’s house legend MK decided to give it a go himself when approach- ing his first-ever official mixtape, for Defected. Has it helped? Well, yes. ‘MK in the House’, which follows up the un- mixed ‘House Masters’ back catalogue package for the label in 2011, delivers all the jumping house you’d expect from a man who almost singlehand- edly defined the house sound during the late-‘90s over two discs, pieced together flawlessly. In between his early work — ‘Love Changes’, re-edits of Pet Shop Boys and Jodeci — MK proves his recent renais- sance is more than a throwback to US garage nostalgia, with new re-rubs of FCL, Amirali and Huxley, collaborations with Lee Foss and Jamie Jones, plus the insertion of fresh bass-inflected cuts from Dusky and Eats Everything. MK proves, while still a citadel for the sound he crafted, he’s no purist. Adam Saville
www.djmag.ca
Pure Intec Two Intec Digital Pure Intechno
7.0 Carl Cox & Jon Rundell
A mere nine years after ‘Pure Intec’ comes ‘Pure Intec Two’, a two-disc compilation that also re-launches the digital offshoot of Carl Cox’s long- running techno imprint. The first disc is chock-full of remixes of tracks from Cox’s latest LP and shows a still solid ear for A&R, with Loco Dice, Guti, Ben Sims and Joel Mull all contributing their respective takes on the big man’s polished techno template. The second disc is mixed by Jon Rundell and showcases the label’s upcom- ing wares from the likes of Nicole Moudaber, Pirupa and Marco Bailey. They all sound much of a muchness, but if loopy, synthetic-sounding main room techno and ‘’avin it large’ is your thing, then this seamless mix will be all sorts of heaven. Kristan Caryl
Fair play to Jaymo & Andy George, they’ve gone from fresh-faced Radio 1 upstarts to hip house heads, due in no small part to their Moda parties and now the emerging Moda Black imprint, which here sees its second compilation overflowing with respected production talent. The 14 tracks (minus the intro and outro) are all exclusives from label fam- ily and friends, exploring all manner of deep, basement house styles. There are some big names onboard, including Eats Everything, who takes a darker, minimal journey on ‘Jazz Hands’, cur- rent bass-house fave and Hypercolour bod Huxley, and the ever-rising Hot Since ‘82, whose collaboration with Habischman is an intriguing, and intoxicating, spaced-out curveball. A blissful highlight is Ejeca’s old school-dabbling ‘Alone’, and M A N I K’s mangled funk on ‘Sold My Soul’ is superb. There isn’t a dud anywhere in sight. Tristan Parker
Rodriguez Jr. Mobilee house
Anja Schneider’s Mobilee imprint is al- ways a reliable source for a chunky beat — or, in this case, 20. Thanks, in some part, to Rodriguez Jr. After dropping his delicious tech-tinged debut LP ‘Bit- tersweet’ on the imprint in 2011, he’s been entrusted with the responsibility of curating the seventh ‘Back to Back’ compilation. Here, however, we hear him don slightly sturdier dancefloor attire, mak- ing this unmixed double disc a valuable tool for serious DJs. Collecting cuts by Ray Okpara,
And.ID, Re.You and Sebo K on disc one, he gives us a dose of his robust tech house formula vicariously through the Mobilee family, before dropping nine of his own collaborations on the second. Moments of driving garage, rolling NY house and jazzy techno make this the full Mobilee bag of chips. Adam Saville
Back to Back Vol.7 Mobilee
8.5
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