I’ve always thought the DJ mix album is a strange beast. It is, of course, ludicrous to think that the context of the nightclub can be recreated for the listener in the loungeroom, car stereo or alone with headphones. And in those less heightened contexts, the thud of an unchanging beat can become wearing. The other issue facing Simian Mobile Disco is that their chosen genre, in very broad terms, is house music – something which has well over twenty years of established history and, of course, cliches. FabricLive has a reputation of producing quality in the field of the mix album. So how do Simian Mobile Disco fare?
Their first strength is that they have a history which includes music outside of the realms of dance. With that background in indi-rock, they are much more comfortable switching rhythmic styles, even while the tempo remains constant. So traditional electro (Hercules And Love Affair with the Serge Santiago Vesrion of ‘Blind’) can transition into straight acid-house four-to-the-floor (Smith N Hack with ‘Space Warrior’) and it feels natural. Bleep-house (The Worthy with ‘Crack El’) can segue into odd synthetic-orchestral chanting (Moon Dog with ‘The Suite Equestria). The almost industrial plasticity of Paul Woodford presents Bobby Peru with ‘Erotic Discourse’ works perfectly up against the near minimalist leanings of Moebius-Plank-Neumeier on ‘Pitch Control’, followed by the 808 snare solo (nearly) of Plastikman with ‘Spastik’. Simian Mobile Disco never allow things to get boring. Many of the tracks have durations of less than 2 minutes, only 5 tracks break the 4 minute mark. This is largely due to the extensive layering, the overlaps often lasting for numerous minutes.
So the cliches are avoided. James Ford and Jas Shaw have no chance of falling into genre traps. And the tracks they’ve chosen are high quality examples of their respective various styles. The duo have purposely avoided making a collection of current hits but have mixed more obscure work, old and new, with the more well known tracks. This is a great blend of subtle styles and dancefloor banging, of intricate DJ mixing (Ableton Live is my guess) and the space to catch the attention of your feet. As to the conundrum of what exactly to do with a DJ mix album, I’ve found this one particularly good as a soundtrack to my walk to and from work for the last couple of weeks.
Adrian Elmer
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