Albums
November: 18 albums you need to hear this month
Pangaea, Romare, Mandar and more
Youandewan 'There Is No Right Time' (!K7/Aus Music)
With his debut album, Youandewan really comes of age. Before now his deeper house sound has been coy, cuddly and charming. Here, though, he matures and conjures some poignant emotions informed by a lonely few months in Berlin. Smeared neon chords, soft-edged drums and fuzzy tape delay mean the whole thing still feels warm and inviting, but there’s a musicality to the melodies and key changes that really elevate the whole affair. Alongside teary-eyed slow-burners, there are loose-limbed hip hop skits and steppy 80s bangers that make you jerk your body. They say house albums don’t work, but the absorbing nuances of this LP debunk that theory.
9/10
Mandar 'Mandar' (Oscillat Music)
The debut album from Mandar’s pan-continental trio of France’s Lazare Hoche, Denmark’s SAM and Amsterdam-based Malin Genie is a 95-minute long opus that gives full range to their sprawling house epics. It’s sensual, lithe and pulls off the neat trick of working the dancefloor yet still hitting the spot on the bus to work. ‘Another Joint’ is a prime example, its brutal kicks and fizzing hi-hats offset by deep synth swells and P-Funk bass keys. Mandar pay homage to breakbeat throughout, as the gargantuan, hypnotic ‘Ascend’ readily attests, while ‘Sequence 25’ shows an adroit handling of ’70s-style analogue synth jams. But as the crunching, jazz-flecked ‘Else’ shows, Mandar’s prime territory is pure, unadulterated deep house.
8/10
