David Federmann - Water's Edge - VMAJ7
Admirers of Euro-disco and nu-jazz might flock to this slick yet welcoming EP from French producer Federmann, whose previous creations have adorned his own label VMAJ7 for the best part of five years. Like other subtle Francophiles before him - let's mention Francois Kevorkian, Rinocerose, later-period Marc Moulin or St Germain here - Federmann lets the music do the talking, without resorting to cranking up the beats beyond healthy and safety levels or making things too easy-going.
Each track is aimed at both the feet and the head, includes breathy guest vocals from the likes of Coco Jonza and Camille Delage and just a touch of jazz-funk influence, none more so than on the fidgety In Between which reminds this listener of Isabelle Antena's take on minimal jazz-house. Close your eyes and you could be swaying your hips on a South of France cove with an impending sunburn and a long spritzer.
That's not to say Federmann can't funk things up of course. Mooted single Dream It and the harder Ring Road are more than just workaday 4/4 house-bangers while the closing runaway shuffle of 133 recalls some of Gus Gus's more energetic remixes. But it's the layered textures of Significant Others that detaches Federmann's work from the 'norm' of standard nu-house.
7/10
Each track is aimed at both the feet and the head, includes breathy guest vocals from the likes of Coco Jonza and Camille Delage and just a touch of jazz-funk influence, none more so than on the fidgety In Between which reminds this listener of Isabelle Antena's take on minimal jazz-house. Close your eyes and you could be swaying your hips on a South of France cove with an impending sunburn and a long spritzer.
That's not to say Federmann can't funk things up of course. Mooted single Dream It and the harder Ring Road are more than just workaday 4/4 house-bangers while the closing runaway shuffle of 133 recalls some of Gus Gus's more energetic remixes. But it's the layered textures of Significant Others that detaches Federmann's work from the 'norm' of standard nu-house.
7/10