Feels Closer (Dig)

Layo & Bushwacka | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 3, 2006)
• Original Release Date: 2006
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Olmeto Records
• ASIN: B000E0W20C
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #133,240 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Life2Live

2. Feels Closer

3. Ride the Train

4. Me and You

5. Smith Street

6. Sunshine in Ipanema

7. Dr. Teeth

8. Isn't This a Lovely Day [Layo & Bushwacka! Remix]

9. We've Been Here Before

10. Hang Tough

11. Suadade (Longing)

12. K

Editorial Reviews

Layo Paskin and Matthew 'Bushwacka' B are best known for their 2002 hit 'Love Story', a techno anthem named after a seedy Brazilian club. The London DJs are a well-traveled pair and Feels Closer, their third long player, reflects their jet setting lifestyles. Most of the album was recorded in Brooklyn with live jazz musicians (including celebrated Weather Report percussionist Mino Cinelu and a less feted pizza delivery boy they found to be useful with a sax), and their Brazilian love affair is resumed with 'Sunshine In Ipanema', which features the South American superstar Rogerio Flausino. 12 tracks. Olmeto. 2006.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Oh, What A Feelin', December 20, 2006

By 

Mark Eremite "This Is A Display Model Only" (Seoul, South Korea) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Feels Closer (Dig) (Audio CD)

Layo (Paskin) and Bushwacka! (Matthew Benjamin) are one of the tightest DJ duos to hit the dance scene in the past decade. They meld breaks and soothing, artfully-chosen samples with a subliminal ease, creating a body of work with enough skill and diversity to appeal to wide range of house and techno tastes. This, their third album, is no exception. It is a mosaic of digital box pop, opera, electro synth, and funk, all of it built on a bedrock of soul-heavy jazz.

Unlike a lot of albums of this sort, you probably won't be cherry-picking favorites out of the line-up. This CD plays like a night at the club, with thematically unique tracks dove-tailing each other with the grace of an expert dancer slipping from a salsa step to a swing beat.

The most generally appealing segment of the album comes in the first three tracks. "Life2Live" is an unapologetic deep house cover, with veins of throbbing wire, a song that is as grin-inducingly silly as it is danceable (and hardcore clubbers might recognize, in the phantomesque vocals, the voice of Chicago producer, Green Velvet). The second and title track leads in with a shadowy thrum that is lit by incomparable percussive talent by the legendary Mino Cinelu, creating an ambient hunk of sound that is sunny and eerie in equal measures. This is followed without fanfare by "Ride the Train," a clappin', snappin' song inspired by the 80's favorite, "Steppin' Out."

Don't misunderstand. This record isn't what one would call a dance compilation. It's a pastiche of art in sound, and although much of it is groove-worthy, there's more atmosphere than there is dig-down dancing. That's not necessarily a bad thing, especially when you have this time-tested duo setting the scene. Slippery scat sensations control the classy sound of "Smith Street" (which features Groove Armada's Tim Hutton on trombone). The downtempo "Sunshine In Ipanema" (what can you say? These guys love them some Brazil) is still lively with addictive maracan hush-shuffles. And "Isn't This A Lovely Day" mixes Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, and original instrumentation into something that is both amazing and virtually indescribable. If you can't dance to this song, you can definitely use it as the soundtrack to some mind-blowing sex.

This album doesn't sit still. There are times when the two DJs give us something close to an homage (think Nightmares on Wax divided by Lemon Jelly's Lost Horizons period), and then there are times when they seem to be testing their own limits ("Dr. Teeth" mixes urban graffiti with the brassy echoes of an orchestral hall; "Hang Tough" is a jungle of sound, a damp, ropy tangle of computer keyboards and canyon echoes).

This is hardly your typical house/mix album, so don't come here expecting the Asian Dub Foundation or Fatboy Slim. You won't be able to dance to everything here, but you'll definitely be able to listen to it all, over and over, and with relish.