EP Review | 2 Nights at Monopolis | Massey
With their fourth birthday in the rearview mirror, Sprechen Records is showing no signs of slowing down. Releases have been coming out thick and fast over the last 12 months and owner Chris Massey has been gracing decks all over Manchester.
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The label’s latest outing, ’2 Nights at Monopoli’, offers up three tracks produced in collaboration with a number of artists hailing from Indonesia. Following on from recent EP, ’The Jakarta Connection’, ‘2 Nights’ sees label boss Massey partnered up with both Dita and KimoKal for two dance floor focused cuts, as well as a solo rework to close the release out.
Things get going nicely with ‘City Affairs’, the joint venture between Massey and Dita. A variety of flavours mingle pleasantly throughout the track. The sonic influence from the non-manchester half of this production is discernible yet subtle, and the impression is one delivered as a whole, rather than being attributable to any one particular sound or another.
The tracks percussion takes inspiration from early Chicago house. Its sonic palette pays dividends on the dance floor. The result is a song both inventive yet easy to imagine hearing at festivals come the summer festival season.
The second and third track; ‘Two 2 Tango’ and ‘Put It On’, provide variations on a shared theme. The former has an excellent vocal provided by KimoKal. It has a catchy melody and a confident performance from its singer. The latter strips things back to leave a stomping groove. There isn’t a shortage of disco sampling in dance music at the moment. But both tunes rise above the noise and shine in an oversaturated market.
Fans of rough and ready house tracks may be put off by the EP’s polished production, but it’s unquestionable that both will find their way into club sets and house party playlists in the near future.
2 Nights at Monopoli champions Sprechen’s mission to showcase electronic music designed for the dance floor. But its more notable achievement is as an advertisement for the Indonesian artists it successfully showcases, and towards whom one’s curiosity cannot help but be invited.
