- Summertime house at its sparkliest, for fans of Charonne and Sweely.
- The origin story of Felon5 is as endearing as they come. The trio of Jobe Elliott-King (Jhobei), Charley Tucker (Charleze) and Oliver Rayner (Oliver.r) go so far back that Elliott-King was actually at Rayner's birth, because their parents used to rave together. The two met Tucker not long after, in their hometown on the outskirts of London. By high school they were throwing funk and soul parties at their local pub. After some time traveling abroad, the three moved to London and shifted their focus to house music. Well-received releases on labels like Slovenian outpost LUCKISON and their own Bizarre Trax imprint, plus some high-profile gigs at clubs like fabric, have put them at the forefront of a new generation of UK house producers. Their debut LP is bright, sunny and loaded with unabashedly large emotions, featuring eight tracks that'll sound just as good soundtracking Sunday morning sweet nothings as opening carbonated beverages all summer long.
As the title Petty Fraud & Fairytales suggests, these London lads focus on the sweet spot between sincerity and cheekiness. Opener "Gorgeous George" approaches lounge lizard R&B with its rolling breakbeat, twinkling chords and sultry sax. That might sound a bit cheesy, but the track feels like a delicate ode to the sounds the trio grew up on. They go a little bit further on the tear-jerker "We're Going Back," bringing a melody somewhere between trance and IDM into the mix. It reminds me of something you might have heard in the vaguely spiritual catalog of a label like Magick Eye Records in the '90s, but with the skip and swing of the best contemporary tech house.
The sense you get across these two discs is that all three members share a deep love for house music in its myriad forms. Even when things get a bit tougher on the record, like the late-night bassline on "Sexy Swayze," there's still a bit of romanticism in the vocodered voices and swelling chords. "Fiddler Stix" starts as a lean-and-mean breakbeat number before Felon5 introduce a melody so intimate it sounds like you've walked in on someone's pillow talk. And they pull off hip-hop swagger in the Space Jam chords that scuff the polish of "Putz it Ian" or the vinyl spinbacks on "Alien Linguistics."
Petty Fraud & Fairytales lands on LowMoneyMusicLove, the label that not only put out Felon5's first 12-inch, but has also ushered in a whole new era of producers loosely associated with the new minimal scene. While there's absolutely nothing minimal about these tracks, the album sounds like the UK's response to the new Parisian vanguard. Similar to producers like Charonne, Nemo Vachez or Sweely, Petty Fraud & Fairytales is a bursting bouquet of melodies with a distinct UK feel from Felon5's B-boy sensibility and heart-on-their-sleeves soulfulness.
TracklistA1 Gorgeous George
A2 Sexy Swayze
B1 Putz It Ian
B2 Alien Linguistics
C1 Moped Mayhem (R.O.T.M Mix)
C2 Fiddler Sticks
D1 We're Going Back
D2 7 Minutes At Sea