Mayaku is made-up of the three major players on Belgium's Wally's Groove World collective (Marius, Rubba J aka Jan Costermans and Koen Van Immerseel aka DJ Koenie) who together produce emotionally and intellectually satisfying music that is also dancefloor friendly.
This, their debut long player, is being released in DJ friendly vinyl and CD formats - the two only differing in track order and the omission of the previously release 'Aftershock' from the vinyl version.
The CD version, which is the more expressively ordered set, opens with the highly melodic and open sounding deep house of 'Pianos In The Mist', followed by 'Mayuku's Theme', which injects some energy via urgent bass sounds and crunchy beats.
'Telephone From Mars' adds broken beats and nice bass licks to the mix, while the thunderously delayed 'Bush Walking' gives the set a darker twist.
The pivotal track, 'Omnidirectional', as its name suggests, is a many faceted exploration of music and sounds that balances well between the intensity of 'Bush Walking' and the lighter direction of 'Funkateers'.
Having crossed the middle ground 'The Other Side of the Mountain' gets predictably but pleasantly thoughtful on the trombone and vocal lead 'Silent Thoughts', which provides a link into the funky bass of 'City Spinners' and the set closer, 'Aftershock'.
Whether the grass is greener on the 'Other Side' is hard to tell from the album cover (it's obscured by a volcano), but the music sounds cool.
