ABOUT THIS ITEM

When the two colossi of the Bearfunk label get together you can be sure that creative sparks will fire and the disco grooves will ooze. So here we have Stevie Kotey's and Max Essa's new album project, the cunningly titled Soiree. The pair of them not only cover a lot of physical territory (Max recently moved to Japan, leaving Stevie in London) but also cover a lot of musical territory on the album through disco, jazz, house, leftfield and Balearic flavours. "Zim Zim Zar Zar" opens proceedings, a wonky leftfield ditty which sits in the space between Lawrie Anderson and Trio. Max debuts his fine vocal fettle on this track, as he does on his everyday story tale in "Day To Day Life" and the quirky "Synth-inside-her". Bow-wow-wow's Dave Barbarossa provides some fine drum backbone on several tracks on the record (the pizzicato TV-themed style "7 Sins From Heaven" and the 80s talk show-esque "Ver-Sion"). "Overgroomed", "It's Disco" and "Pegasus Flys Over the Red Moon" slow things down with touches of slo-mo, lazy jazz and laid-back disco funk. Things close up with "The Theme From Soiree" - disco grooves meets Herbie Hancock with Lee Ritenour tints, jazzier keys and some nifty fretwork from Max. Robin Lee (one half of pioneering Faze Action) helps out in the engineering & final touch department, which wraps the album in a fine audiophile bow.