After the undoubted success of Mui Mui Records’ (pronounced Moy Moy) first release which presented original music from Bernard also came complete with rerubs from Silverlining and Harry Wills. With the name for the label being an ode to founder E. Alexander’s daughter and her mixed British Chinese and Scottish upbringing its meaning is derived from the phrase “little girl” in Cantonese. It is clear from speaking with Ewan that a lot of care and attention goes into every facet of the label and it really shows in the music.
Well, Mui Mui are back for round two and again they come correct with the freshest house cuts courtesy of American artist John Manhard. This time around Mui Mui have opted to give their chosen artist the full run of the EP to showcase his sound and the result is four blissful originals that manage to combine a number of influences. Make sure you have a direct line to the sun when listening to this EP.
Our pick of the release is the sultry ‘Lennox Is NK’ on A1 and the punchy, dub infused houser is tailor made for the day light hours. From the very beginning the undulating sub bass, paddy synths and the suggestive female vocals already hint at something sexy is to unfurl form the speakers. This is exactly what then transpires as the acidic bass stab gives that alternative dimension to proceedings. Rhodes chords soon make an appearance further bolstering this as the perfect hazy afternoon jam that it is surely designed to be.
Completing side A is ‘Lexington’ which treads a more minimal path but still retains the funk by way of tidy guitar licks and again the soothing vocal snips. Much more upbeat than A1, A2 still manages to meld a number of influences into a comprehensive style which is not an easy task over the course of the 5 minute + run time of this track.
Flipping over and B1 introduces even more musicality into the mix and piano keys are exploited to the gain of ‘House Standard’. Harking back to the East Coast house sound of the mid 00’s there is plenty of meat on the bones here that it is certainly no deep house filler track. Rounding out the EP is B2 ‘Hog Lord Smanging’ and again the raw bumpy East Coast sound is well presented here. Smoothed out for modern floors and ears B2 is a top contender for highlight of the EP and the vocoded voices, repeated bassline inserts and guitar stabs are sweet indeed.
So far the EP has been especially well received by the likes of Raresh, Laurent Garnier, Tobi Neumann, Vlad Caia (SIT), Andrey Pushkarev, Alec Falconer, Varoslav, Julietta, Jimpster, Black Loops, Enzo Siragusa, and Rossko.
MUIMUI002 will be available via the label’s Bandcamp and Ba Dum Tish followed by other sites a month later.
More info on John Manhard
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More info Mui Mui Records
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