For the last three years, Sydney house / disco label Future Classic have hosted a weekly Sunday afternoon event at Woolloomooloo’s Tilbury Hotel aimed towards low-key, ‘under the radar’ DJ sessions, complete with BBQ in tow. As well as a healthy following, they’ve also managed to attract some impressive international guests, with the likes of Joakim, Idjut Boys and Todd Terje all spinning at Apres over the last few years. On the heels of Future Classic’s recent limited four-part 12” series of the same title, this unmixed collection compiled by Nathan McLay gathers together all of the tracks that previously appeared on those singles on CD for the first time, alongside two unreleased exclusives. It’s in fact one of those previously unreleased tracks that opens this collection, with Worst Friends’ ‘Neves For None’ kicking proceedings off on a comparatively laidback Balearic tip that sees feathery Latin guitar strokes sliding effortlessly against clattering percussion and warm funk bass swells – while it’s certainly this compilation’s most subdued moment, it proves to be a fitting warm-up for the predominantly house/disco-oriented styles that follow.
Mario Basanov’s ‘Do You Remember’ sees more hard-edged Italo-disco influences coming to the fore alongside some curiously Berlin-esque mid-eighties AM guitars, but just as it’s beginning to get interesting, the anodyne soul vocals that enter midway threaten to drag it out into pure MOR syrup; thankfully Melbourne’s Clubfeet liven things up with ‘Edge Of Extremes’, an angular slice of synth and guitar-drenched New Wave pop that sees the band tracing out similar territory to that of Cut Copy. Elsewhere, Pink Frost’s epic nine minute remix of Todd Sparrow’s ‘Evening Star’ provides the haunting centrepiece here as phased vocal harmonies intersect with streamlined house handclaps and brooding piano keys, before Empire Of The Sun / The Swiss member Sidwho?’s ‘Millionaire’ takes things off into into melancholic eighties synth-pop territory that’s more akin to early Icehouse. While some listeners may find that ‘Apres’ comes off a little too smooth and polished at points, on the whole this is quality stuff that shouldn’t leave Future Classic fans disappointed.
Chris Downton
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