Quality dance music does exist. And that's despite the mess of commercial dance records clogging up the charts from the r'n'b and trance mafias. In contrast, the beats emerging from The End, central London's premier dancing hotspot have always been more 'value' than Asda. And while the collective sounds of Layo, Bushwacka, Tayo and Mr C have often been dubbed 'tech house', doing so is simply lazy.
In reality, tech house is 'housey' mostly because these boys keep the feel atmospheric, unlike a lot of the harder techno DJ's. But listening to albums like this, Bushwacka's Cellar Dwellas or his higher profile collaborations with Layo, you'll hear far more than just techno. There's electro 'n' breaks a plenty, with a heap of leftfield electronics all wrapped up in that warm Detroit sound. It's just that break-tech-electro-idm-house ain't a snappy label. 'Bteih' for short, yeah?
With such a musical hotpot in mind, Cellar Dwellas is little different. Tracks like 'Rubber Band' fuse breaks with weird groaning sounds usually the preserve of the experimental or deranged and still sound good. 'Here Us Now' uses UFO's famous rousing 'Now listen' speech as a starting point to run into Drexciyan electro heaven. As a whole, the album proves wonderfully warm, with fantastically well produced sounds stopping this side of 'experimental weirdness.' Not that there's anything wrong with experimenting or weirdos. It's just good to boogie sometimes.
Click here for Mr C's new compilation
