- Golden-era tech house from the late, great producer known for A², Stopouts and An Alien Recordings.
- This September, connoisseurs of refined club bombs mourned the loss of one of the greats: Andy Panayi, known best as half of A² and Stopouts, two production duos whose music, 20 years on, has proven itself to be timeless. Panayi's heyday was the late '90s and early 2000s, when he released music on labels like Oblong and An Alien Recordings (his label with Alec Stone, the other half of A²). But his records were never out of style, and got a boost in cult appeal over the last few years, thanks to reissues on Groovepressure, Traffic and An Alien. You could call his music tech house, but most of it's too playful for that tag to feel quite right. The rhythms are slippery, the sounds elastic, the drums always thwacking and light-footed.
Dedication, which came out last week on Bristol's Real Deal Records, calls itself "a celebration of Andy's life and musical legacy," with all proceeds from the record going to Peace Hospice in Watsford, UK, where Panayi received care at the end of his life. With three previously unreleased tracks from the early 2000s, it shows the late producer going full steam ahead. There are none of the breakbeats or electro flirtations of, say, Tales From The Archives. Instead we get full-throttle, four-to-the-floor bangers, some cool and sonorous ("Pleasure") others warm and housey ("Making Waves"), all of them over 135 BPM and armed with the fat drums and deep bass Panayi always did so well. This is a vinyl-only release, and if Real Deal's past 12-inches are anything to go by, copies won't last long. Whether you nab one or not, take this cue to explore Panayi's records, further or for the first time. You'll hardly find a more perfect collection of quirky, thumping club grooves.
TracklistA1 Pleasure
B1 Elemental
B2 Making Waves