Review: The Future Disco crew has thrown open the doors to their imaginary 'Mirrorball Motel', a roadside hotel for disco misfits that's far more glamorous than it is sleazy (unlike most real-life motels). The 20-track musical accompaniment takes disco, boogie and nu-disco and bends it into fresh new shapes, with plenty of excitable house grooves and funk-fuelled peak-time workouts. Highlights include, but are in no way limited to, the Reflex's squelchy rework of Roisin Murphy's 'Incapable', the hands-in-the-air rush of Saison's 'Rocinate', a fine neo-Italo throb-job from Breakbot & Yuksek ('Taqa'), the glassy-eyed Balearic disco/deep house fusion of Bondax ('Don't Want It') and the yacht disco-influenced sunshine of 'Strangers' by Kosmo Kint and Kapote.
Review: It's time to take another trip to Storkenland, the happy-go-lucky place populated by fast-rising Swedish producer Thomas Henriksson AKA Storken. As rooted in nu-disco (and particularly the colourful, synth-heavy sound associated with Scandinavia) as his previous releases, the two tracks on show are amongst his most attractive to date. Henriksson first joins forces with Aurele Zero on 'X2000', a pleasingly throbbing, rubbery and all-action fusion of kaleidoscopic, Nang-style nu-disco and Italo-disco revivalism. It's a riotous rush of sonic colour all told, and one that's clearly capable of putting smiles on faces out on the dancefloor. In contrast, 'Dire Strains' is deeper and more laidback in tone - even though it bobs along at 128 BPM - adding a subtle Balearic twist and deep house sonics to the producer's trademark nu-disco sound.
Review: With five original tracks plus four remixes, you can call this an EP or album as you see fit. Either way, if you're a lover of Scandi-disco from the likes of Prins Thomas and Todd Terje - or indeed the spangly, 80s-tinged nu-disco regularly served up by Nang's revolving stable of eastern Europeans - then it's a collection that's well worth investigating. Bleeping, analogue-sounding synths are much in evidence throughout and positively demand that shapes be thrown on the dancefloor, while remix duties are taken care of by a couple of Scandi heavyweights, Per Hammar and the aforesaid Mr Thomas.
Review: Gerd Janson recently re-booted his Misfit Melodies imprint (an occasionally used subsidiary of Running Back) in order to sling out mixes of a track he made with Catz 'N' Dogz. Here he follows that up with another new set of remixes, this time of Storken's bold, bubbly and life-affirming Italo-disco/freestyle fusion gem 'Lille Vals'. The EP begins with another chance to savour the little-known producer's exciting and rush-inducing original mix, before Janson delivers a chunky, bass-heavy 'Talamanca Dub' that brilliantly re-casts the track as a saucer-eyed, pitched-down trip into slow-motion Balearic house territory. Elsewhere, Patrick Topping provides a surging, peak-time-ready revision that's as weighty and energetic as it is cheery (in part thanks to a raw analogue bassline), while the Ajaks mix is a throbbing, neo-trance delight.
Review: Bizarrely, Running Back boss Gerd Janson describes this multi-artist EP as "a sampler for a hypothetical mixtape". Perhaps he should make that imaginary mix a reality, because all four cuts are quality. Check first the throbbing and pulsating brilliance of Storken's "Lille Vals", which sounds like an Italo-disco obsessive's take on Bobby Orlando's mid-1980s work (with a little NYC freestyle thrown in) before donning your extra-special dancing shoes to shuffle along to Alan Dixon's new dancefloor "Drums Mix" of his synthesizer soundscape "Ambient Braindisk". Zombies In Miami predictably deliver the goods on bleeping, synth-laden nu-disco throb-job "Panoramica", while Hokaiido's "Talisman" offers the perfect combination of delay-laden proto-house drums on steroids, bold freestyle bass and cheery synthesizer melodies.
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