DJ Aakmael: Music EP
Uzuri

Aakmael's no neophyte: he began DJing at sixteen, has played in clubs across the US and issued material on labels such as Bumping City Records, Manuscript, Unified Records, and Cyberjamz, and did a twenty-year radio stint in Virginia. The half-hour Music EP is straight-up deep house with its gaze clearly directed towards the dance floor.

In the A-side opener “Undrgrnd,” a low male voice repeatedly growls the track title over a sexily strutting, bass-crawling funk-house pulse sprinkled with strings, handclaps, and wavering keyboard modulations. Vocal guest Esquire then lays his smooth croon over an infectiously jacking deep house pulse in “Imagine The Future.” During its seven-minute run, Latin percussion and silken strings imbue the track with warmth while roller-coaster vibes boost its jazzy feel. The flip's “Music” perpetuates the club vibe with crowd noises and DJ musings augmenting its smoothly pulsating flow while “Get Down” does exactly that with a congas-and-synths-laden funk-house strut replete with female “ooh-ooh-oohs” and “Get on down” interjections. In truth, Aakmael's dance tunes are actually pretty simple, structurally speaking, and there's generally more repetition than development but their potent, club-ready grooves are nevertheless hard to resist.

December 2008