VA: Future Disco Presents: Poolside Sounds
Needwant Recordings

London-based Needwant Recordings continues its inspired Future Disco compilation series with a collection perfectly designed for soaking up rays and kicking back beachside. The vibe is laid-back, funky, and soulful—a perfect soundtrack to the summer and a soothing antidote to whatever job-related stress is currently weighing you down. The recording's eighteen songs serve up a warm, sonorous blend of electric piano, disco strings, lush synthesizers, grooving bass lines, and smooth beats. As the release's Laidback Sunshine House subtitle indicates, the purported aim is to document the transition from a hot day lazing by the pool to a more energized night where the tempos rise and the parties last until the early morn. While that change is effected so subtly as to verge on imperceptible, there's no question the material grows in vitality during its closing third, with Robag Wruhme's radiant house cut “Donnerkuppel,” for example, more driving than earlier ones.

Easing the listener in splendidly, Ron Basejam's remix of The White Lamp's “It's You” provides a beautifully soulful entry-point that's complemented by a slow segue into Soho808's “Get Up Disco,” a choice slice of silken soul that's bolstered by its enticing vocal hook and laid-back tempo. Familiar names crop up, including Maya Janes Coles, Crazy P, and Mario Basanov. The seventy-five-minute mix rolls out one smooth jam after another, from a Classixx remix of Yacht's “Psychic City” to a Cosmic Kids makeover of The Rapture's “Sail Away.” Other standouts include Lovebirds' “Want You In My Soul” (featuring Stee Downes), a Basanov remix of Crazy P's “Changes,” Coles' “The High Life,” and The Mekanism's remix of Basanov's “We Are Child of Love.” The mood is carefree and even, in isolated moments, jovial, as Maxxi Soundsystem's remix of The 2 Bears' “Bearhug” illustrates. Presumably it's once again Needwant owner Sean Brosnan handling mixing duties on this fine set of melodic deep house and disco tunes, just as he did on the earlier 2012 installment Future Disco Volume 5: Downtown Express and 2011's Future Disco Volume 4 ‘Neon Nights.'

July-August 2012