Albums
July: 18 albums you need to hear this month
Laurel Halo, J Hus, Robert Hood and more
Joey Negro 'Produced With Love' (Z Records)
Was there ever a time quite like the turn of the 1980s – an age when the embers of disco, house music’s nascent utterances, the birth of hip hop and synth pop were all thrillingly intertwined? Dave Lee remembers it, and his first Joey Negro album in two decades joins these dots with the kind of sparkling, euphoric productions that have become his trademark. Echoes of Chic and Diana Ross sashay around ‘Prove That You’re Feelin’ Me’, classic deep house tropes percolate through ‘Won’t Let Go’ and Lee even has the chutzpah to pull off a discofied reimagining of Kraftwerk’s proto-electro gem, ‘It’s More Fun To Compute’. Sunshine, in aural form. Stephen Worthy
7/10
