As a veteran DJ, I realize that not ALL music is made for the dance floor, nor are ALL of my readers club patrons or DJs themselves. And as a musician/producer, I occasionally like to write about those pieces that simply represent “music”. The Legendary 1979 Orchestra on Audio Parallax does just that. Hailing from the Netherlands, producer Andrei Idu seems to have picked up where The Art of Noise left off, painting musical pictures with a smorgasbord of instruments that aren’t normally grouped together.
“Tropical” is upbeat, funky, instrumental, and tells an incredible story without words. It plays well from start to finish, without boredom or redundancy. Matthew Kyle’s remix presents a downtempo rendition (108 bpm’s), with a superb mash-up of sound bytes and groovy loops, even a jazzy flute – almost Soul II Soul meets Loose Ends, if you will…
“Body Rock” puts me in the mind of vintage Dan Hartman or Gary’s Gang, with the original mix once again upbeat and groovy, and predominantly instrumental except for the chanting of the title. Also as before, a downtempo remix is included, this time more subtle and straight forward but deep and jazzy nonetheless.
All in all, a welcomed addition to my iTunes and Serato libraries.
Available: Digitally from Juno Download and iTunes.