(Eskimo Recordings/Stomp/EQ)

This mix is so damn solid!! Fun, cutting edge, enjoyable, educated and solid. The internationally acclaimed (by the dance music underground) Glimmer Twins have pulled together a mix of leftfield downbeat dance music tunes from the early eighties for Serie Noir 2: Drak Pop and New Beat creating an absolute sterling piece of work.

Over recent years there has been some engrossing moments put together by artists such as Trevor Jackson (aka Playgroup), Tiga, Metro Area, Daniel Wang and Chicken Lips who have a talent of compiling funky, wacky and at some times avant garde mixes out of tunes made during or heavily inspired by 80’s dance music. In a similar vein, for Serie Noir The Glimmer Twins have drawn tunes from this same pool of music, this time with a more brooding, ominous aspect.

Savage Progress’ My Heart Begins To Beat is a quirky piece with a dominatrix theatrical style vocal, dark slap bass and synth stabs. The appealing dubby synth jam of Blancmange’s The Game Above My Head could easily be mistaken for a current Chicken Lips product.

The Nick Straker Band’s Straight Ahead is definitely a highlight in the mix with its catchy unstoppable elctro-funk bassline and piano twinklings. As is Green Fridge’s Da Best with its low-fi sounding Felix Da Housecat style electro house verse and storming transcendent disco chorus.

The roots music fest continues with the percussive groove of Crash Course In Science’s Flying Turns of which DJ Hell samples for his recent track Follow You on his NY Muscle album.

Green Velvet’s aptly titled Coitus does exactly what it says where the soundtrack to some almighty female orgasm is layered over a Moroder-styled disco dub. The man himself features later on with his track Evolution, where Giorgio lays a punk-funk style bottom end under a glam-rock flavored guitar lead. The punk-funk thing continues with Sandy Steele’s Mind Your Own Business of which comes across like a kina blend of the DFA’s ace remix of Metro Area’s Orange Alert with Authur Russell style quirky organ action.

Overall this mix is brilliant for those who like their music arty, somewhat challenging but still very danceable and funky. It is in fact essential listening for this kinda crew. This mix is way up there with mixes put together by the aforementioned artists (i.e. Tiga, Playgroup etc). However, those who like things a little more middle-of -the-road and perhaps less anti-social are advised to by all means give this baby a spin but proceed with caution.