Propaganda – Spliff Music

We're a bit behind on this one, it came out in September, but we only just got hold of it thanks in no small part to the lovely people at Triskele Management. Cheers! Saafi & Liquid Phase’s Sound Like Bazoom is totally different – it has a guitar (no wait! Don’t run off just because I used the G word!!) First up, it’s a real guitar. Second up, it’s loud. Third up, it’s lazily played and hacked at, like Bernard Butler out of Suede at his best (He’s Dead, in case anyone asks you). Definitely a tune to make you look at the DJ (attention DJs, we really want to look at you, we really love you. Etc.)  Hux Flux show up with one of the best tunes of theirs in a while, melodies drift in and out in– dare I say it – in an old skool way. Likewise Mekkanikka: Resurection (sic) moves with more ferocity than a lot of his material, the melodies are jostling for supremacy and the effect is a messy peak stomp marathon. Theoreme’s Asago is architecturally similar to the 3D Vision crew at their most banging, building up deliciously into a very noisy, danceable peak run. Dozer & 40%’s SPD has a nice movement to it, the melodies are to the front, it’s hard on the cheddar aspects particularly with its huge-as-a-whale breakdown but… somehow I sense they’re taking the mickey a bit. Certainly it had me dancing about merrily, and you know what a cynical tosser I can be. Tube’s Secrets of Life is severely tasty, with gnarl and melody in good combination. The melody gets a little saccharine, then things take a moodier twist, an outstanding breakdown giving way to as nigh-on-perfect dancefloor experience as you’re ever going to get. Dali’s Going Down is a frantic one, marred a bit by the bird-through-a-megaphone vocals, and its movement’s generally quite predictable, but post breakdown it’s a great knees-aloft stompfest and you cant argue with that. Familiar vocal samples mark Sixsense’s Spiritual Sense, a very tasty little number that catches that wonderful atmosphere of old goa that’s missing these days. Chemical Drive’s Mushroom jack is standard fodder, marred by a too-much topend screechy stab that sounds about as pleasant as the Monday morning alarm clock, and spoils the spacey and sumptuous runs going on underneath it. Finally, Safi & Ibojima’s Awakening Of The Dawn basically does what it says it does – it’s a warm, ecstatic sunrise tune with a big melody that will sound awesome dropped at the right time, simple as that really. So, a pretty neat compilation here, a lot better than other releases in the same style There’s a lot here to keep you coming back for more, and the immediate dancefloor effectiveness is unquestionable.