“We just love hybrid music” is the altogether quite genuine confession of Jack Beats’ masterminds - Niall Dailly and Ben Geffin in their online bio and 'Somebody To Love' provides the proof. This nine-track offering is a melting pot of 2012’s dance music trends that obscures this record from anything a casual dance music fan would have envisaged hearing two years prior.
First we have the techno driven 'Somebody To love'. Operatic samples akin to the boisterous production used in Watch The Throne’s 'H.A.M' usher in splashes of Burial-like bass ripples. Dance music’s growing culture of artists scratching one another’s backs, offering guest features is great but it’s only to the detriment of up and coming singer/producer Jess Mills, rather than to the track, that her contribution is unavoidably Katy B sounding, not anything unique. But a bombastic chorus of twisted robotic voices fills a stomping chorus along the lines of a Boys Noize dance floor banger.
There’s been a huge House resurgence this year with the likes of Disclosure and Julio Bashmore shaping the class of 2012. 'Just A Beat' is evidence enough that Geffin and Dailly have had their ears to the ground. A deep and commanding vocal sample “alright it’s just a beat” (a staple of funky house) pushes mounting percussion to the opening beat while scatterings of Deadmau5 reminiscent “whops” provide a straightforward hook.
Between claps of typically highly compressed dub step snares, 'About To Get Fresh' injects a token dose of hip hop with 2010’s new kid on the block, Chiddy Bang and OV of Foreign Beggars chucking in some bars of unremarkable lyrics. 'Gotta get Fresh' is the chorus tag line that will be branded in to your memory after a few listens. A listen to the instrumental reveals details of clicking Trap drum machines and subtler beats that arguably make this version preferable to the former.
'Storm' is a longer, more graceful affair and Kid Harpoon puts on the most impressive guest feature of the record with his wonderfully soulful voice. But without much on offer for the ravers, and too little in detail for a muso until the dying moments of the track, it’s hardly very memorable.
Trying to argue in any case that there’s a unique identity to Jack Beats would be a lost cause but to them, that was probably never the point. They seem happy to throw all their favourite styles of dance music up in the air and combine them where they land. But with four of the nine tracks being instrumentals of the opening five, it leaves something to be desired when looked at in the context of a “full length” album. What you do have though is a handful of solid enough dance floor fillers that will tick all the right boxes for hedonistic night. For many, that’ll no doubt be all that’s required.
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First we have the techno driven 'Somebody To love'. Operatic samples akin to the boisterous production used in Watch The Throne’s 'H.A.M' usher in splashes of Burial-like bass ripples. Dance music’s growing culture of artists scratching one another’s backs, offering guest features is great but it’s only to the detriment of up and coming singer/producer Jess Mills, rather than to the track, that her contribution is unavoidably Katy B sounding, not anything unique. But a bombastic chorus of twisted robotic voices fills a stomping chorus along the lines of a Boys Noize dance floor banger.
