Fuckpony: Children of Love
Get Physical

VA: Monza Club Ibiza Compilation Vol. 1
Get Physical

Jay Haze and Samim convene under the Fuckpony guise for this latest missive from Get Physical, the Berlin imprint justly celebrated for recent releases by M.A.N.D.Y. and Booka Shade. Grooves sweetly gallop through thirteen dance tracks oozing old-school Detroit techno bounce, warm Motown soul, and deep Chicago house flavour. A major part of Children Of Love's appeal is its vocal dimension, with Big Bully, Shaniqua, and Lil' Dirrty Ghetto Bastard adding greatly to the album's appeal whenever they appear. The title song's feverish funk-house, for instance, relies as much on its testifying voices as its almost subliminal melody. It's equally hard to resist infectious cuts like “Ride The Pony” that drape soulful vocal hooks over breezy house grooves (“Move your body to this new style sound”). Though Haze and Samim champion uncomplicated surrender (the message of “It's Only Music” is simply “Forget labels, get down, get loose, and dance”), they clearly invested considerable energy into perfecting the material. The unassuming “Silence” and strutting electro-house of “93 N 4Am” go down so smoothly, one almost overlooks how delicious the album's electro-funk-soul really is.

“Ride The Pony” also appears mid-way through London-based DJ Heidi's fine Get Physical mix, but it's merely one highlight of many. Representative of a typical three-hour set, Heidi features new cuts and old, including Carl Craig's beatific ‘Mind Mix' of Maurizio's “Domina” from the ‘90s. The mood shifts from hypnotic to grooving with John Tejada's tasteful swinger “Forced Fiction” and Darkmountaingroup's fabulous exercise in tension and release “Lose Control” (heard also on Ben Watt's recent Buzzin' Fly Volume III). The pumping ‘Heidi vs Riton' cut “Vejer” and old-school techno of Tobias's “Street Knowledge” swing mightily, plus there's the lumbering synth-bass funk of Cobblestone Jazz's “Dump Truck” and Marc Houle's “Bay of Figs,” so psychotropic you can almost feel your brain lobes tightening as it unfolds. The mix ends distinctively too with Erol Alkan's breezy remix of Hot Chip's “Boy From School” capping the set with harp and glockenspiel flourishes that glisten in the sunlight.

December 2006