专辑简介

by Andy KellmanThe Playgroup installment of the DJ-Kicks series acts as an ideal counterpart to the collective's self-titled album, which was released only a few months prior in the U.S. Trevor Jackson, the orchestrator behind Playgroup, more or less unfurls the Playgroup blueprint here, harvesting rarities from Larry Levan's Paradise Garage sets and dishing out picks from the numerous scenes that have taken inspiration from New York City and Chicago clubs of the '80s. Material's fat-bottomed "Ciquri" bleeds into Harlequin 4's version of the hi-hat happy "Set It Off," which dissolves into Impedance's dubby, detached version of "Tainted Love." Random Factor's "Broken Mirror," an anxious blend of synth pop à la Visage ("Fade to Grey") and paranoiac unease à la Rockwell ("Somebody's Watching Me"), floats into Cultural Vibe's "Ma Foom Bey," an early garage staple. While there are stylistic similarities tying everything together, there's a wide range of moods throughout. The sweet bump of Metro Area's "Caught Up" is followed by Tiny Trendies' melancholic "The Sky Is Not Crying," and Wanda Dee's explicitly lusty "Gonna Make You Sweat" is succeeded by post-punk revivalists the Rapture, whose "House of Jealous Lovers" screams and scrawls with echoes of Gang of Four and Pigbag. Many will find this potent mix of the old and the new to be more palatable than Playgroup itself. It gleefully bounces from 1980 to 2000, hits most points in between, and keeps it exciting from beginning to end.