Celebrating 10 years of refining its highly personal vision of underground electronic dance music, Paris' Circus Company presents Snuggle & Slap, a two-CD compilation balancing contemporary house music with more idiosyncratic submissions. It's more than just a label sampler: many of the artists included here appear two or even three times, having been afforded the opportunity to think beyond the dancefloor and experiment with new sounds, unusual styles, and secret passions. Hushed funk, feathery beats and spongy textures characterize Snuggle, while Slap snaps to attention with more insistent grooves straight to the heart of the label's sweet spot: sumptuously detailed, swoonworthily deep house. Whether you've been following Circus Company for the whole decade or are only just now turning on, this collection of new, exclusive material is an essential portrait of one of the most dynamic labels around. Who's on board? There are veterans from the label's very earliest days, including Ark, Nôze, Dave Aju and Sety. There are folks that have joined in recent years, enlarging the label's sound along with its roster: dOP, MyMy, Guillaume & the Coutu Dumonts, Audio Werner, Antislash, Oleg Poliakov, Le K. And finally there are the most recent freaks to join the Circus: Berlin resident Ryan Crosson, New York's Wolf+Lamb-affiliated Nicolas Jaar, and the German jazz/soul band Homewreckers. There are also a few familiar faces hidden behind names that might be new to you: Ezechiel Pailhes, who contributes a touching sketch for piano and voice, is one half of Nôze; Destination Danger is the pairing of Oleg Poliakov and Guillaume & the Coutu Dumonts, and together they come up with one of the album's most driving and hypnotic tracks. Circus Company's Mathias Duchemin (aka Sety) sums up the project: "The concept of this compilation with to present our artists' hidden sides. On the Slap side you'll get their usual, dancefloor-oriented style. On the Snuggle side you'll have the chance to discover their more 'home listening' directions. Nowadays, I have the feeling that labels are neglecting the non dance side." Accordingly, these tracks go far deeper than the bongos-and-keyboards model of so much current "deep house." An emphasis on live instrumentation, acoustic samples and subtle vocals keeps the sound warm and supple across both discs. dOP, Nôze and Dave Aju continue to find new ways of fusing house and jazz with an unmistakable pop element. Ark's "Back to Sleep Back" sounds like a downbeat classic you might discover hiding on the B2 of a record you hadn't pulled out in years; his "Hey Glizz" has a heavier bounce, but it's still as smooth as anything the antic musician has ever done. MyMy's swinging "Bonus Jack"-the lone non-exclusive cut, it comes from their Kinesi Workshop EP (CCS015)-is jazzy, slo-mo 2-step, the lone example of a genre that never was. Ryan Crosson's "Slow Down" is one of the album's most surprising selections, following the example of Miles Davis and Teo Macero in its rich instrumental collage work. Nicolas Jaar pursues the odd cadences and naturalistic timbres that make his work unique. Le K conjures underwater cathedrals with his bubbling, bell-toned "Rahan." Sety and Audio Werner both dig into grooves as voluminous as feather pillows, while Oleg Poliakov and Guillaume & the Coutu Dumonts' Slap contributions go for the percussive disco gusto. Guillaume's "Odyssee," meanwhile, finds him cheating gravity with an absolutely stunning fusion of ambient house and African jazz. But the best thing about Snuggle & Slap is the way the tracks fall into conversation with one another. Like pictures at an exhibition, each reflects upon the next, with complementary sounds and recurring themes coming together into a whole that's far more than the sum of its parts.
Stay tuned in 2010 for new Circus Company artist albums from dOP and Guillaume & the Coutu Dumonts.
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