Former members of early Nineties funk outfit President Groovestone (the same band that spawned Simon Ratcliffe of Basement Jaxx), Dylan Barnes and Jem Panufink are hardly strangers to music or the business of music.
Their CVs include sessions with members Freakpower and Young Disciples, Dylan owns the Sunflower imprint (who the Prophets first recorded for in 1995) and also records under the Earl and Mutiny monikers.
Jem runs the Finger Lickin' label and operates under his nom de musique Soul Of Man.
Their pedigree comes into its own on Circus, a cultured lesson in how to produce funk based electronica and in the process cover every genre of house music - while avoiding the crass.
'It Was A Dark And Story Night' belongs to the same school of quirky house inhabited by Big Hair. Beginning with a getaway scene soundtrack and dripping with rain effects throughout, it trundles between bass bin ripping house passages and quirky playground circus noises.
'Tide of Dreams', like most of the album, reveals the duo's solid P funk pedigree, while 'Heartbreakers' could have been ripped of an early Eighties Sugarhill release - although it's also a little tougher around the edges.
'New Dawn' picks up a disco bass line and adds free flowing saxophone to create an early Nineties jazz-house 95 North track, given extra NYC garage credentials by Mary Joy's, um, joyous vocals.
'Twilight Bump' brings the rhythm forward, rolling in on conga fills and disco breaks and samba whistles, while 'Shoob' introduces sirens over a bouncing, but brooding deep house number. Naturally it's all done in the best possible taste.
'Believe In Me' gloriously drops the pace, taking on sweeping early Tricky sonic charges dropped over a slow charged chemical beat, sprinkled with spaced-out spoken vocals a la Ian Brown.
'Show U Love' returns to the early Nineties with one of those bass led grooves that inspired the Sunday scene and spawned UK garage, while'Breeze' closes the album with the only genuinely down beat contribution on the album.
Little short of genius.
