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04 September 2003
Mutiny UK, In the Now (System Recordings/Sunflower)
Dylan Barnes has got to be one of the unluckiest mo-fos in the annals of dance music. First he had the distinct displeasure of watching his former partner-in-crime Simon Ratcliffe rake in unbelievable truckloads of hype and praise for his vastly overrated work with Felix Buxton in Basement Jaxx; now, with his new partner Rob Davy and their Mutiny UK project, he has to endure endless (and mostly unfavorable) comparisons to Basement Jaxx. Fans of the Jaxx and similar studio jesters like Daft Punk will hear echoes of those acts’ retro-kitsch obsessions in Mutiny UK’s party-friendly palette, but this is more of a pure house record than either Ratcliffe and Buxton or their French counterparts have the attention span to produce. So forget the obvious but ultimately irrelevant comparisons -- except when they invite them, as they do on sillier tracks like the robot-electro anthem "Infectious" and "The Pornstar", whose title says it all. Mutiny UK actually deliver one of the year’s more entertaining collections of four-on-the-floor beats, including at least one great peak-hour dust-up ("Kip da Kik Bouncin’"), one masterful slab of disco-diva sass ("Secrets"), and one genuinely beautiful Balearic anthem ("Keep Love"). No, it’s not going to stand the dance music world on its ear, but so what? I’ll still join this Mutiny over hangin’ in the Basement any day of the week.
— Andy Hermann
.: posted by Editor 9:12 AM
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