(Eskimo/Stomp)

The Belgium label Eskimo have recently established themselves a firm position in publishing the cream of underground dance releases and their next installment ‘Dance Modern’ will do nothing to shake off this reputation.

They’ve installed punk-funk wonderboy Robbi Insinna aka Headman for DJ-mixing duties and he has delivered one killer piece of work. Riding on the wave popularity for remixing Seelenluft, Radio 4, The Rapture, Trash Palace and our own Cut Copy – Headman carves up a splattering of wacky funky tunes which are just the ticket to incite insane debauchery in the most well controlled person.

Headman’s style is easily identified by his characteristic live sounding percussion, raw rockin’ bass lines and quirky twits that spin into his tracks every now and then. The tunes he has selected seem to mirror that of his work.

He kicks off the mix, setting the tone with an obscure but appealing punk-funk tune ‘Mice or Monsters’ by Medium Medium which they made way back in ‘81. Somehow this track works perfectly with the next one – ‘Big’ by New Fast Automatic Daffodils that has this strange entrancing tribal breakbeat electro thing going on.

Headman has a real ability to pull together the old and the new. The acapella of Rocker’s Revenge’s tune sits so snugly on top of Spencer Filipsson’s Edit of Hans-Peter Lindstrom’s ‘Fast & Delerious’ that the two should never be separated again.

Current ‘big’ tunes of today are not denied in this mix as there is Mylo’s ‘Drop the Pressure’ and Le Dust Sucker’s ‘Mandate My Ass’ just to keep things more familiar (both tunes have been getting some attention on JJJ).

The mix rocks out with a particularly rock ‘n’ roll version of Chromeo’s ‘Me & My Man’ and Headman’s own remix of Franz Ferdinand’s ‘Dark of the Matinee’. He also well addresses the current renaissance of acid house particularly with the Chicken Lips mix of Land Shark’s ‘Tie Me Up’ and Tom Boy’s brilliant ‘She Hit My Head’.

If you love underground beats then do not pass this one up. It is easily one of the best mixes put out this year.