Jacques - "Dans La Radio" (Mixed) - (3:19) 138 BPM
Review: Back in 2016, Ed Banger main man and nu-rave scene stalwart Pedro Winter AKA Busy P delivered a particularly excitable DJ mix that was affixed to the front of copies of Mixmag. Now the long-running magazine has decided to make it available as a paid-for download, with a big chunk of sales revenue going to the producers and remixers who feature. It remains a hugely entertaining excursion, with Winter quickly charging between glassy-eyed synth-pop (Breakbot, as remixed by Fatima Yamaha), mangled electro-pop cheeriness (Justice), contemporary French house (Mr Oizo, Cassius and Pharrell Williams), cowbell-sporting acid house revivalism (Playgroup, Kiddy Smile), Middle Eastern headiness (Acid Arab), and the raw Sheffield sleaze of Crooked Man.
Review: Their first label compilation since 2008, Busy P rallies up his talented troops for a collection of exclusive tracks to celebrate a decade of electro excellence. And we mean excellence. Each cut sparkles with its maker's idiosyncrasies; Krazy Baldhead lays down his most textured cosmic melodies, Busy P gets sleazy and old school Chicago with Thunderbird Gerard, Justice give their star-gazing air-guitar basher a truly majestic rework and Oizo gets his slo-mo hammer on with some gorgeous jacking de-pitched synth stabs. There's loads more to chew on here, and not a dull moment throughout. Here's to another decade.
Review: More than 18 months after their Audio, Video, Disco LP dropped, Justice's "Helix" finally gets a single release. It's a typical chunk of goodtime disco-stomp, like Daft Punk without the filter-heavy swing, or Cassius trying to rave in ill-fitting straightjackets. Remix-wise, Gesafellstein turns it into a crunchy electro banger - all heavy drum programming, cut-up yelps and murky riffs - while Parisian veteran Domenico Torti (once Dimitri From Paris's go-to "edit guy") cuts it up impressively, adding a dose of fuzzy funk to proceedings. For the heads, there are also two more downtempo bonus cuts, of which the effortlessly sweet "Ohio" is the pick.