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(Mantra Breaks)
I have a new favourite CD for jumping around the house to courtesy of breakbeats favourite Italian mistress, Agatha. She started as an alternative to the house driven club scene of mid nineties Rome in a squatted building with the simple idea of bringing back the FUN to clubbing. Seven years later and Agatha has an international reputation for her upfront and funky music that thousands each week come to pay homage to. She’s boasts the Godfather of breaks, Rennie Pilgrem, as one of her regular guests who is quoted as saying on the inner sleave to this album about Agatha “imagine two residents who are without doubt better at djing and tune-selecting than most (if not all) of their esteemed guests … this is the one place where I find myself constantly asking the djs the name of the tune they’re playing”. Agatha is after all the club night he named his Breakspoll remix of 2004 winner after, the Agatha Stomp remix of Zero’s Emit/Collect. For those unfamiliar with the Rome clubbing scene here’s a chance to experience a bit of Agatha for your selves.
If sets by tourists such as Lee Coombs, Meat Katie and Rennie Pilgrem rocked your dance floor in the past twelve months then chances are you will love this CD – provided you’re not yet sick of tracks such as Satisfaction and Emit/Collect (with the name of the remix it had to find a way in there), both of which are great tracks but have received their fair share of coverage of late. However in listening to this CD both the familiar and unfamiliar blend together with seemingly effortless ease to create a mix that builds with a natural sense of flow. Predominantly breaks, it’s not afraid to straddle into 4/4 territory (as the aforementioned trio are known to do) if the feel is right.
Beginning with Breaks Legend’s This is The City the album starts off with an filtered early Fingerlickin’ type vibe. Stir Fry’s Lose Control and Extramode’s Solaris establish an early electro breaks feel which sets things up perfectly for Santos’ Another Planet remix of the Boogie Pimps Somebody to Love. It loses the disco feel of the original, instead fading the main lyric in and out of stunning electro-breaks build-ups – an early highlight for moiré.
A bit of stomp is brought in with BSJ’s Music is the Stronger which sets up beautifully for the tribal mayhem of Chant by Alan Barratt presents The Zulu Nation part VI (a track I used to refer to as the “Taliban Chant” before knowing its name – listen and it makes sense). The journey continues from this early peak, this time with Santos’ Sabot and its New Orderesque piano break down midway through. This mellow moment is short lived as Meat Katie’s All I Need indicates once again an increase in tempo and leads to a feel that this is the build up to the finale à Creepshow (Plump DJs), Dirty Waltzer (Soul of Man – Madox Mix), Black Out (J.D.S), Satisfaction (Benni Benassi – Poxy Music No School mix) and the climax of Emit/Collect (Zero – Agatha Stomp mix) before plateuing out with Rennie Pilgrem’s Gladiatore.
Being a fan of long mixes which tease with introductory samples of coming tracks and crossover with a punch this CD works wonders for me in bringing together a collection of guaranteed floor fillers and journey tracks which combine beautifully to make me want to travel to Rome to see these two residents in action. Wondering what the hell this breakbeat phenomenon is all about? This is a great place to start your breakbeat conversion.
