Review: Since launching in May 2020, Frappe Records has released a string of multi-artist EPs, each with its own conceptual theme. They've continued this approach on Afrodisiaque, an attempt to join the dots between Afro-house and "the French sound of the early 2000s". Floyd Levine's opener, 'Creda Mutwa', offers a perfect encapsulation of this, combing jacking Chicagoan acid house grooves and wild TB-303 lines with densely layered African style percussion, while Mr Raoul K's superb 'Raining Love' is authentic West African deep house rich in fluid xylophone melodies, melancholic chords and foreboding electronic riffs. Elsewhere, Saudade hits the heights on the luscious 'Bougarabou', Ten Fingerz doffs a cap to the disco-house/Afro-house futurism of DJ Gregory's Africanism series ('Blow de Conga') and Basile de Surneses rolls out some rave-ready Afro-acid ('Bastoss AfroK47').
Review: The Frappe label loves to give its' multi-artist EPs a concept, though there appears to be no such unifying theme behind French Kiff, their latest mini compilation (or at least not one they've so far mentioned). Regardless, there's a lot to love across the EP, with the Parisian imprint's selected artists all delivering the goods. Check first the mid-90s New Jersey garage revivalism of Mark Blair's 'Tropicana' - all bouncy organ riffs, squelchy bass, driving beats and synth-trumpet solos - before admiring the starry, synth-bass driven deep house haziness of Naux's 'Kristofer'. Elsewhere, Groove Boys Project's 'Groove Box (Paname Club Mix)' is a summery slab of jazzy deep house warmth, Basile de Suruesnes' 'French Toaast' adds scratches and hip-hop vocal samples to a chunky deep house beat, and Ten Fingerz' 'Ze Party' is a woozy, crunchy and starry treat.
Review: We're not quite sure what the loose theme is for Frappe's latest multi-artist EP, but the material on show is well worth further investigation. Scene stalwart S3A provides a peak-time ready chunk of sparkling, densely layered sample-house full of rubbery slap-bass, drowsy chords, chunky house beats and twinkling melodies ('Work For NYRK'), before laying down an even weightier, horn-heavy house stomper ('Slump'). Elsewhere, Ten Fingerz joins the dots between chunky, peak-time house, hip-house and Blaxploitation funk ('Rue du Fonk'); Basile De Surenses drops some disco-tinged, soul-fired vocal deep house ('Get back'); and Alastair Lane reaches for the glassy-eyed 'city pop' synths on the gorgeous and sublimely squelchy 'Tokyo Love Affair'.
Review: French label Frappe has worked out an entire storyline for an imaginary arcade game -Jtekken 3, which lends the EP its' title - in order to provide context for the music on this multi-artist extravaganza. It's a long and rambling if entertaining tale, so we'll just focus on the five tracks on display. Basile de Suresnes kicks things off via the rubbery, rap-sampling electrofunk brilliance of 'Break For Good Teuchi', before Ten Fingerz drops some spacey acid/synth-pop/deep house fusion ('NS') and Tomasi layers classic-sounding US house riffs and bleep melodies over a bustling, all-action peak-time beat ('Haute Attiture'). Elsewhere, Suresnes returns via the sweaty and excitable piano-house rush of 'Dirty Shit For Badass' and Ten Fingerz' second contribution to the compilation is a starry slab of deep acid ('I Wanna Jack')
Review: Basile De Surenses' last single, released in the summer of 2023, was an undeniably on-point exploration of the classic disco-house sound. This time round, he channels his inner early '90s raver on a trio of energetic, sweat-soaked workouts. Basile De Surenses first joins the dots between breakbeat-driven hip-house and bass-heavy warehouse workouts on the breathless and brilliant 'AAA', before pitching down a familiar hardcore and jungle break to techno tempo on the wide-eyed, hands-aloft rush of 'BBB' (check the raw rave stabs, looped vocal snippets and boisterous bass). To round things off, the young French producer reverts to jacking 4/4 beats on the excitable and gurning 'Leto Doesn't Want U To Get In Da Club'.
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