After a much tasty inaugural outing by UK house don Cottam – from which we were lucky enough to premiere the excellent Todd Modes remix a few weeks ago, FatCat Records daughter church FCR return with a second multi-faceted offering courtesy of Welsh up-and-comer DJJ.
A member of Bristol-based label and collective Crazylegs as well as a half of the Island duo – responsible for the noteworthy ‘Nokia EP‘ two years ago, DJJ follows up to his reshuffled, heavy-stomping discoid house hybrid ‘Just a Lil‘ with the further polychromatic ‘Yn Y Ty‘ six-tracker for FCR.
Fusing strains of batucada and African polyrhythms with tape-saturated Chi-town grooves and deep smokey ambiences, DJJ offers up an all-embracing audio cocktail that doesn’t quite choose between muscular swing and laid-back lounging, intensity and magnitude; feeding the furnace with an equitably balanced mix of pace and focus to ravish all on the dancefloor.
If the powerhouse burner ‘I Keep Trying To Convince Myself‘ breaks the EP in with a forceful mashup of ragged soul samples and jacking drumwork, ‘Yn Y Ty‘ is a much weirder yet compelling clash of styles, aptly described by the label as a “DJ Rush meets the Tetris theme” affair.
Back to an Afro-disco vibe, the hypnotically loopy ‘Apilli‘ is a decent transition to one of the EP’s highlights, ‘Upsqwar‘, which combines a straight-out intoxicating whistling melody with finely textured drums to keep the adrenaline rushing. More of a charming interlude, ‘Lil Funk‘ makes way for the EP’s swirling folk-techno capper ‘Glas‘ – dipping its red-hot pistons in a bowl of flavorful tzatziki sauce and epitomising the very essence of this record: stamina-testing but built to last.
Yn Y Ty is out now, order a copy from Bandcamp.
TRACKLIST
A1. I Keep Trying To Convince Myself
A2. Yn y Ty
A3. Apilli
B1. Upsqwar
B2. Lil Funk
B3. Glas