Buzzin' Fly
Author: cds@tranzfusion
Friday, May 5, 2006
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'This year everyone has been drooling over Ben Watt's sublime label' Time Out
'Surely the most vtital Deep House label in the UK at the moment … Ben Watt's dead cool label" DJ Magazine
'The epitome of cool' BBCi
If there is a reason behind the continued rise of Ben Watt's acclaimed underground Buzzin' Fly label it is in its seemingly effortless absorption of the recent abrasive minimalist and electro challenge to its natural deep melodic roots. Recent cuts from Moscow's Kayot and Lisbon's Darkmountaingroup have moved floors and minds for the label's longtime deep house supporters but critically, for the imprint's ascendancy, for East London and Berlin's darker and more progressive DJs too. 'Deep House for the electro generation,' as Terry Farley said recently. It is therefore a testament to Ben Watt's role as A&R chief and creative director that almost all of Buzzin' Fly's successes have come from young first-time producers and debutants, and many of them are presented here on Watt's assured third journey through the label's moods and grooves.
In fact it is a show of the esteem in which he holds his roster that three-quarters of the mix is comprised of Buzzin' Fly artists, each track notable for its variety and diversity. Early on, the blissedout electro of Kayot is thrustingly re-worked by Lyon's deep dons, Manoo and Francois Aymonier. Darkmountaingroup's Acid-soul floor-buster, 'Lose Control' then tightens the grip until the atmospheric melancholia of Franco-Portuguese trio, Rodamaal and Detroit's Lephtee perfectly set up the beatless ambient close.
In between, Watt hand-picks five modernist classics to join the dots, drawing on the edgy beauty of Fairmont's 'Gazebo' from James Holden's Border Community label, the exhilarating deep drive of The Timewriter's little-known remix for Hungary's Budai and Vic ('I Love Deep'), John Tejada's pared-down electro elegance, the serene techno of Madoka, and Copenhagen's Martinez's jabbing and swirling remix of Jussi-Pekka's 'Stereo Interleaved! (presented here in Watt's complete back-to-front re-edit that weaves through an inspired three minute intermix with Kayot's 'Clear Sky').
But it is perhaps the emotional tug of Watt's own writing and production that threads the seventy minutes together so uniquely. There are surely few comparative compilations that present such rich yet unforced lyric-writing, and Watt's own two pieces ('Old Soul' and 'Attack Attack Attack') and the additional spoken word extracts from his long-running 'Outspoken' project (here read by Philadelphia MC Baby Blak, Idaho's Jennifer Valone and Brixton poet, Malika Booker) add original moments of great pathos to the cool thrust and drive of the contemporary club tracks. It is an evocative original style - part artist-album, part mix album - whose origins go back to Volume 2 and the impact of Watt!s classic speak-song Estelle collaboration, "Pop A Cap In Yo! Ass!. Beautifully paced, with a superb gear-shift midway through to escape the clamouring pulse of the early cuts into the spatial atmospheres of Tejada and Madoka, right through to the moving Stillwater ending, the mixing is always musical, propulsive and seamless; key blends, long cross-mixes, filter sweeps, beat-matched delays and subtle mood changes all pepper and propel the journey.
Melodic, honest and at times painfully melancholic, yet thoroughly crisp and modern, this is surely the work of a DJ and label chief at the top of his game.
TRACKLISTING:
01 Fairmont 'Gazebo' (Intro Loop)
02 Ben Watt feat Baby Blak 'Old Soul' EXCLUSIVE
03 Fairmont 'Gazebo'
04 Kayot 'Clear Sky' (Manoo and François A Remix) EXCLUSIVE
05 Jussi-Pekka 'Stereo Interleaved' (Martinez Triple-O Adjustment, Ben Watt Re-Edit) EX Tags