Review

The Move (various artists): (Tokyo Dawn Records)

I always get a bit excited when receiving promo material from Tokyo Dawn Records. They are a label that represent a plethora of music styles, but with a common goal that all of the music they release is of a very high standard.

Known for their more down tempo material, The Move album is according to their press release, ‘strictly about house music.’ Reading through the track listing, I know my ears are in for a treat as artists like Gregory Porter and Colonel Red are represented whilst remixes appear courtesy of Afronaught, Atjazz and Opolopo to name but a few. There are remixes and edits on this album that will leave you salivating, believe me, I’m wiping my keyboard as I type this!

We start off with the Opolopo remix of Gregory Porter’s ‘1960 What’ which doesn’t need any introduction to you. Next up is an Alex Barck remix of Vindahl’s ‘The Question’ which takes the track into a funk fuelled electronica frenzy, followed by the oh so very joyous Afronaught and Mark de Clive Lowe’s remix of Soulparlor ‘Nothing Ever Changes.’ This is a vocal track of truly astronomical proportion with a hook that embeds itself into your psyche!

Om Unit are on remix duty next, reinterpreting Colonel Red’s ‘Holla’ and this version is so, so moving. It’s an utterly fantastic remix, and something I can see getting some serious plays in 2012.

Vindahl’s ‘Head Over Heels’ gets the treatment from Vilhelm Sundin next whilst Atjazz puts his take on Comfort Fit’s ‘ Ask the Devil.’ Atjazz is an incredible producer and DJ and adds a gilded electronic edge to this release. This is raw house music, 3am kind of stuff and I for one love 3am music!

Next on stage is the LFX remix of Stan Smith ‘Disco Technic’ which again renders an incredible translation of the original. It’s Opolopo’s turn to be edited this time with Simon Tappenden doing his thing on ‘Waiting.’ This is yet another awesome edit, combining influences of house, deep house, broken beat and old electro. Oh man, the more this edit goes on, the more I love it!

The next track Kissey ‘House’ is something unique on this album, an original!

It’s the turn next of Soul Parlour ‘Now’ remixed by the highly underrated Souled. I have an Erykah Badu edit that Souled did years ago of ‘Honey’ which I still play to this day. They work their magic on this number too, making a catchy and quirky piece with their trademark vocal chops and obscure samples.

Opolopo’s tweak of Blaktroniks ‘Nothing’ and Andreas Saag’s remix of Swedeart ‘Sex On The Airplane’ come next and are followed by the Henry L and Ingo Sanger remix of Positive Flow ‘Tapesteries Of My Mind.’ This latter mix delves heavily into a deeper house territory and provides a fascinating insight into another way this can be delivered. It’s a brilliant remix and flows from beginning to end.

Last up is the Entropy Mix of Portformat ‘Where Do I Belong’, a bass heavy and quite dark vocal lead piece of music that provides a nice finale to this album.

I have to say, there are some utterly fantastic remixes and edits on here and I for one will be playing a lot of these. This is a very brave album from Tokyo Dawn Records, but they have got it absolutely spot on. There are some amazing tracks on this album and with summer here (ahem), I know you’ll be hearing a lot of these played out over the coming months.

You can listen to snippets of the tracks here: http://www.tokyodawn.net/the_move/

A solid release.
8/10
Words GARETH MORGAN