- A mixed bag of an LP that spans 20 years of Radio Slave history, from self-covers to new bangers.
- Matt Edwards rose to prominence in the early '00s as one of the most reliable sources of funky and functional tech house. As a producer, Edwards has never been a one-trick pony—his recently revived Rekid alias focuses on downtempo fare, and there's also the weirdo adult contemporary of Quiet Village, his collaboration with Joel Martin. But Radio Slave has always a project for the club, and he's been a reliable workhouse for dance floor movers for 20 years now. It's no surprise that some of his biggest tracks—"Werk" and "Grindhouse"—pay homage to the hustle in their titles.
If you need proof of how good Edwards is at this formula, check out 2011's Work: Selected Remixes 2006 - 2010. At the height of his powers, Edwards presented remixes of artists as different as Slam and UNKLE—and he made all of them sound exactly like original Radio Slave tunes. His debut LP as under the name, 2017's Feel The Same was, surprise, more of the same. These are case studies in the art of the tool: punchy kick drums, slithering basslines and a little vocal flare here or there. Each component part served the greater good of the groove.
Venti is Edwards' latest full-length as Radio Slave and celebrates 20 years of the project. Half album, half compilation, he toes a line between staying true to the Radio Slave alias—even updating old tracks—and spreading out into new territory. Cuts like "Wake Up" and "Jaws" aren't much more than groovy loops with disco house flourishes (a detuned horn section on "Wake Up," slapp bass slides on the latter). These tracks and others in the same disco-y vein are the highlights of the record.
When he strays from that path, things go a bit off the rails. Back in 2005, Edwards turned in a career-defining remix of Kylie Minogue's "Can't Get You Out of My Head." The result was ten minutes of pop remix perfection that should still elicit some whistles on the dance floor. Edwards has another go on Venti, strangely covering his original remix with a vocal from Michael Love Michael. It might have worked as a spacey disco instrumental a lá Prins Thomas, but Michael's vocals pale next to Minogue's.
"Can't Get You Out Of My Head" is a strange moment of nostalgia where it feels like Edwards is trying to recreate his own past. There's a similar feel to "Wait a Minute" and "Amnesia." The former was originally an instrumental and should've stayed that way. On its own it's a perfectly passable Innervisions-style tune, but vocalists Nez's generic musings ("Hands up"; "You a bad bitch, throw it up") come off cringy. "Amnesia," Edwards' bid for the trip-hop revival, is a bit stronger, but other than the smoky horn line, the whole thing is a bit too polished to sit up there with the scuzzy directness of groups like a.s.o.
This isn't to say that Edwards should stay in his lane and limit Radio Slave to a legacy production outfit. It's easy to imagine the electro swagger of "Strangers in the Night" or the tripped-out minimal techno of "Thirty Six" working as 12-inches. But Venti is too much of a mixed bag to cohere as an album. Stuck between solid new tracks and awkward nods to the past (last year's huge "Mouth To Mouth" cover appears here too), Venti is a bit too reliant on literally recreating the past rather than pointing to the future.
Tracklist01. Radio Slave - Strobe Queen
02. Radio Slave - Wait A Minute feat. Nez
03. Radio Slave - Can't Get You feat. Michael Love Michael
04. Radio Slave - Wild Life
05. Radio Slave - Wake Up
06. Radio Slave - Jaws
07. Radio Slave - New Balance
08. Radio Slave - Stranger In The Night
09. Radio Slave vs Audion - Mouth To Mouth
10. Radio Slave - The Lunatics (A Clinic Full Of Cynics Dub)
11. Radio Slave - Amnesia feat. Cagedbaby
12. Radio Slave - Thirty Six