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Various

Ultrapop

Fabula (Italy)

Chances are you won’t have heard anything quite like this before. Loopus’ own albums come close, but the fusion here between deep amyl-funk and psytrance is as refreshing as it is delicious. Phat Kontrollerz open with Simple Control Complex, a slomo funky tune with wah’s and chikka-wah’s building up until it unfolds into a really nice synth flurry. A great balance here, it would probably fit in with the case logics of any house DJs who happen to be reading (probably by accident.) Antiscrap Warriors’ Invalead is Starsky & Hutch overload, a groove made up of more wah’s, with sleazy brass over the top. It sounds like the Buck Rogers future-proto-disco they had twikki dancing to. Kiwa’s Offset is delirious breakbeat acidhouse, that begs to be played on a big rig, and Loopus’ Casbah takes a deep bassline, adds jazz echoes, goes deep and proggy, then lazy hip hop, then somehow comes back to 4-4 with a deep, reverb-heavy final run. File Praecox’s Fraktalik Penis under “incredibly funky goa workout for some bizarre keepfit video”, and equate Kino Oko’s Czakrum and Bocianum with abstract jazz, as if Jaco Pastorias made psy. Loopus’ The Chase is a sheer delight – pure bontempi trance, the stuff he does best. Try not dancing to this one! One of the cutest and most effective basslines of the moment, it’s a sheerly brilliant piece of electronic music, end of story. Dendron’s Supernatural Jazz is a great morning tune, fluid and breezy with topend noises that seem to be suspended in space. Poppers Hnool’s Disco breaks effortlessly into a smooth, proggy sunrise tune, and with Sienis’s Nifty Nifthy bringing the album to a close in a sort of ‘breezier sensient’ style, it rounds things off nicely. All in all a decent and above average album; the style won’t appeal to everybody so trying-before-buying is recommended. But for anyone looking for a funkier twist on things, look no further.

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