It’s been a while but at last we can invite you to listen to the 3rd installment in the ‘Only A Mixtape’ album series. This album follows the previous two acclaimed albums from Greg Churchill and Paul Jackson and sees one of Sweden’s finest DJ / Producers – Zoo Brazil (AKA John Andersson) take to the mix with his own blend of what he likes to pen technoelectrohousefunk. Not one for pigeon holing !
This album remains in the same vein of its predecessors presenting a concept that is the essence of simplicity with no superstar DJ’s, mega budget or commercial tracks but a selection of hand-picked upfront spinners mixed by jocks who are just bubbling on the periphery of hugeness.
Except there is nothing simple about this album as it presents an orgy of mucky beats and basslines that only the most hardened and committed clubber will be able to get their twisted heads around. A Zoo Brazil track ‘Brown’ launches proceedings with a misleading though magnificent sound bed that wraps you up in a false sense of sensible security. It is slow building, exceptionally calm and really quite nice and works as an easy intro into the remainder of the album that is dark, warped and gritty. Actually all of Zoo Brazils five tracks that appear on this album build progressively throughout as does the entire tracklisting.
What begins with a slight twitch results in a full blown convulsion as the likes of Sebastian Leger, with his ‘Little Bug’ impersonating Flat Eric on acid, Paul Deighton ‘Dirty Harry’ ; ‘John Dahlbäck’s ‘Borderline’ and ‘Blink’ and Dada Life with humongous track ‘The Great Fashionista Swindle’ move us rapidly through the first half of the album.
As you get to Rockers Hi-Fi ‘Push Push’ the album takes on a new skew propelling it onto a grittier and more energetic plateau with the likes of GusGus -’Moss’ (Tim Deluxe Mix) and Richard Murray’s ‘Step it up’ track with the aggressive ‘Are we Steppin it Up or What’ vocals taking the mix to a new level. This side of the album really takes shape at Gutterpunk ‘Up 2 II’ then descends into a dark crescendo as Zoo Brazil mixes his final two tracks ‘Over the Hill’ and ‘Back to Back’ both of which will proceed the album on Gung Ho Recordings, the label that now releases this album series previously launched by Ministry of Sound.
This is a select album for the techno club kids who love things deep and complex that require maximum head space to enable full absorption. Random rifts and racket are plentiful whilst vocals are kept to an absolute minimum with only the obligatory smattering of a smutty sounding of female demanding that you listen.
An essential for your collection…
01. Zoo Brazil – Brown
02. Elektrochemie – Mucky Star
03. John Dahlbäck – Borderline
04. Sebastien Leger – Little Bug
05. Dada Life – The Great Fashionista Swindle
06. Zoo Brazil – Bitch Boys
07. Paul Deighton – Dirty Harry
08. John Dahlbäck – Blink
09. Rockers Hi Fi – Push Push [M.A.N.D.Y.'s Pusher Remix]
10. Thomas Schumacher – Take Me Out
11. GusGus – Moss [Tim Deluxe 919 Remix]
12. Gutterpunk – Up 2 11 [The Yank Remix]
13. Zoo Brazil – Pointer
14. Paul Deighton & Richard Murray – Step It Up
15. Zoo Brazil – Over The Hill
16. Zoo Brazil – Back 2 Back
