The 6th Borough Project - One Night in the Borough

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  • If you've been following Graeme Clark in his solo disguise as The Revenge or the stream of 6th Borough Project 12-inches leading up to One Night in the Borough, you should know what to expect here—deep, blissfully hypnotic sampledelia with track flows governed by the laws of extreme repetition. It's a shame that "trance" means a particular subgenre of electronic music, because that term applies just as much to the effects of these tracks as anything Tiësto's ever played. Given the space of fourteen tracks, Clark and Craig Smith are able to utilize this formula over a broad musical spectrum, creating an album in the full-fledged sense, one that traces a landscape of tempos, styles and emotions. With its love of crate-digging and re-editing worn on its sleeve, One Night in the Borough is something like a disco-house heir to DJ Shadow's trip-hop landmark Endtroducing...... Like that record, One Night's menagerie of resurrected sounds conjures up images of dusty record shops and tattered vinyl, musical spirits captured on wax. The night starts out with a dose of slow-mo groovers before hitting full party mode with the disco strut of "Find a Way." A kickless and spacious scene-setter, "Let Yourself Go" could easily slide up alongside any of the dreamier numbers on DJ Sprinkles' Midtown 120 Blues. From then on, Smith and Clark work their hybrid style in a myriad of ways. While the two are clearly sample Jedis, they're often at their strongest when they put house in the driver's seat and let the disco-soul-jazz-funk ride shotgun. The stripped-down, wound-tight groove of "B.U.R.T. (The Journey)" is a real charmer, and the pulsing snake bass of "Iznae" makes the track stand out after a trifecta of big-boned and glitzy disco burners. Late highlight "Deep C" plunges into the ocean, shedding BPMs, plumbing the watery darkness in a submarine equipped with a disco ball. Time stands still. Dancers, their feverish contortions interrupted, sway or fall down. The song is wedged between the album's housiest cut and its fastest cut, and it acts as a bit of a mind warp, to be sure, the kind of spritely, dynamic track sequencing that keeps you on your toes. But that's just one of the many reasons why this record will have you on your feet.
  • Tracklist
      01. Intro 02. Let Yourself Go (Live Mix) 03. If the Feeling's Right 04. B.U.R.T. (The Journey) 05. Find A Way 06. Back to Me feat. Ricky Reid 07. Sometimes The Fool 08. Settle 09. How Can I Show You ? 10. Endless Night 11. Iznae 12. Deep C 13. Changin 14. BURT (Inside) 15 String-A-Lude
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