(Floating Point)

The title Mixed Business conjures all sorts of images – fat balding shoppers, married sales people, even tasty food. But it’s hard to imagine this sinuous sexy body music playing over the in-house CD player!

So many mix CDs on the market do little more than compile the same tracks as every other DJ. Take a look at any number of dance award nominated mixes, packed full of the latest club hits and Pro Tooled to a mediocre sheen.

Mixed Business is different. Unless you’re a serious music junkie, it’s unlikely that you’ll recognise the tracks. But the bluesy soul-drenched groove will work its magic just the same. From jazz cornet player Nat Adderley (brother of Cannonball) with his boppish beats on ‘Fun in the Church’ through to beautiful deep hip hop and electro from CiM and Anthony Shakir, the album eases you gently into a sense of mellifluous electronic funk.

Gradually moving up the tempo, Amp Fiddler’s deliciously techy garage has the sexy swing to get you bumping. I’ve been hanging out to hear the Little Beasties (aka Melbourne DJs Angela Maison and Ant J. Steep) for so long. But Mako’s remix of the soon to be released paean to the database revolution ‘Digitize Me’ is even better than I could have hoped. Mako drops in with his own slice of squiggly electro ‘Like, Abort Juan’ soon after. Like Simon’s club mixes, things progress smoothly through dubby deep house (Marlow and Charles Webster), sultry hip house (Clyde & Capitol A) and jacking musical electronics everywhere.

The project was pitched as a meeting of DJ, producer and artist to create a ‘portable exhibition space’. It’s a great idea, but Jay Ryves’ work doesn’t really seem to do the project justice. Her inoffensive graphic design would be great as conventional cover art. But pitched as ‘Art’ it seems a little half-arsed!

That comment aside, this Mixed Business is definitely worth your support. Listening to Simon Caldwell play records is always a blissed-out experience. He mixes through sounds effortlessly; the beautiful winding grooves wrap themselves around your ears gently caressing you into a dancing mood. This is an all too rare chance to take that home.