Good lord! Has it really been three years since Daytoner‘s Wass Records debut? The answer is ‘yes’, as he finally provides a follow-up to the sample-delic, genre-hopping, retro-beat-fest that was 2012’s Sunburst Radio. Mind you three years is a relatively swift wait given that new label (Skeewiff’s Pedigree Cuts) took the practically insane step of telling a producer to “take as long as you like” which means they’re lucky to get anything at all this side of next century. Especially since they also bound over this hopeless sample fiend not to use any samples. No samples? Could that be because they have an eye for those lucrative film and TV soundtrack tie-ins? Well, the clue is kind of in the title. Nevertheless, Daytoner rose to the challenge, squeezed as many people who could actually play instruments into his tiny Cornish studio shed and is shortly to deliver the sample-free, genre-hopping, retro beat-fest that is Synchronicity.
And in the fifty three minutes that begins with the jazz-funky, flute-drenched, disco soul of Sauce Of The Nile and ends with the quiet, Rhodes-tinged ambience of – er – Quiet Rhodes, our man takes us on an aural journey that also encompasses downtempo beats, Balkan breaks, spacey disco-boogie, Brazilian-flavoured mood music and sax-drenched acid jazz. Highlights include the aforementioned mid-tempo club-worthy opener, the psychedelic trip-hop of Brassic and Half A Mansfield Please and the mysterious continental flavour of Hardly Exotic. Oh and let’s not forget the comedy breaks of Clouseau. No, really. Keep your ears peeled the next time you turn on the telly. You might be hearing some of these…
(Out 11 September on Pedigree Cuts)