- Planet Mu may at heart be a dance music label, but it also does a surprisingly good line in pop. Take this year's swooning, starry-eyed Love And Devotion album that label owner Mike Paradinas produced in collaboration with Lara Rix-Martin and Gravenhurst as Heterotic, or the skewed synth pop of Solar Bears and Rudi Zygadlo.
The debut release from John Wizards, Lusaka By Night, is another addition to this more radio-friendly output. Comparisons to Vampire Weekend will no doubt abound; like that band, John Wizards take a melting-pot approach to their influences that includes R&B, various southern African styles and dub, making for an infectious electronic pop soup. The languid guitars, delicate bells and live percussion of the title track are counterbalanced by spacious synths and Emmanuel Nzaramba's pitchbent vocals. Perhaps they would be better left untreated, as here they veer dangerously close to diluted post-dubstep territory.
"I Is," an instrumental track, opens with a moody bass synth passage, then blooms into a riot of lightly skipping beats and coruscating keys. Ital Tek remixes the forthcoming LP track "Tet Lek Schrempf" into something much more dance floor-inclined, punctuating the blissful melody with fizzing snare rolls and a brisk groove. Slowing things down, LV foregrounds the percussion and pitched-down vocals of "Lusaka By Night" and lowers the guitars, exchanging the original's summery vibes for sultry late-night heat.
TracklistA1 Lusaka By Night
A2 I Is
B1 Tet Lek Schrempf (Ital Tek Remix)
B2 Lusaka By Night (LV Remix)