dotsandashes:

‘OK, so Brad Weber’s latest sonic patchwork may not tread too heavily on the toes of 2-step nor any other given subgenre of garage and with his newly cobbled together Spring Mix emerging just in time for the belated onset of summer, there are a couple misgivings with the above titling although that oughtn’t deter you from delving into what is a darn comprehensive encyclopaedia of contemporary electronica. Inviting us in with the idle glimmer of Floating Points’ Vacuum Boogie and dropping us off one hundred enlightening minutes later with a languid take on Pick a Piper triumph All Her Colours which is here decelerated by Luxembourg’s lone downtempo clinician Sun Glitters, this salmagundi is essential in almost every way.

In the first instance, it informs as to Weber’s inspiration – that from which his insanely accomplished eponymous LP of earlier on in the year was first forged – although perhaps most importantly, it provides a quintessential estival listen that’s more than capable of kindling the party and keeping it smouldering smoothly through to the early hours. The tormenting DAEMON of When Saints Go Machine offshoot, Kenton Slash Demon, saddles up alongside a refreshing burst of Dan Snaith fave Gonna Rain from Slim Mitchel, before this dextrously blended amalgam then trickles into the sordid bloops of Jonas Rathsman’s Feeling You. Further afield, Snaith’s reconceptualising of Holden’s Renata mixes it with the punitive Tropical Discothèque-derived African Disco Power of Basa Basa and the summertime Grind of Chazwick Bundick’s tangential Les Sins manoeuvres. A compulsive collection erring on ‘the funkier side of house and techno’ from one of the year’s best, if as yet underrated artists, had we an alternative to the widely lionised ‘Best New Music’ epithet we’d be slapping it all over this one posthaste…’

Pick a Piper is out now on Mint Records.