Secondo: A Matter of Scale (Soul Jazz) - CD

I sat opposite some random customer a few weeks back at my favourite local Cheers-style tapas restaurant ("where everyone knows your name"). In that week when we had blazing sun before it all went tits up. He was sporting a bright yellow 'Soul Jazz Records' T-shirt (and he was wearing suspect shorts and flip-flops, but we'll ignore those for now). After initiating the usual "I'm a serious music lover" conversation to synchronise interests, I asked him what he thought of the label. The conversation went something like this:

"Yeah mate, wicked re-issues, big soul fan here."
"What about the new stuff?"
"What new stuff?"
"All that dancehall, dubstep and disco..."
"Didn't realise it was all new, thought it was all re-releases. They're called Soul Jazz, aren't they?"

Hearty laugh from him, smirk and head nod from me. Back to our drinks. Perfectly highlighting the identity crisis that I've always thought the Soho-based label has had. So, it'll be interesting to see where Secondo's debut album fits in to the scheme of things. Swiss-born London-based Radovan Scasascia has spent the last eight years fine tuning his fragmented take on techno via his excellent Dreck Records label.

'Kuwait' is the "eye of the duck" track. Posessing the same feverishly uptempo and dancefloor friendly qualities as his previous singles. Simultaneously triggering sonic notes from the worlds of computer-based disco, 80's funk and loop-obsessed German Techno (think Errorsmith and MMM). It's all about the positioning of that slap bass.

Couple of downtime / abstract moments, where the spaces between notes aren't so obvious, would have been welcome. Rhythm wise, nothing really veers too far off the linear route. The introductory 'Ought to say' skips and jumps in way that'll catch you out whilst the departing 'Fine Primo Tempo' hints how things could have spiralled off into obtuse tangents.