(Adrift/Shock)

Label owner, DJ, prolific producer and breakbeat artist Mark Pember aka Meat Katie has served up his third full length artist LP, this time on Adrift Records, and the result is high quality breakbeat and tech 4/4 business.

Those acquainted with Meat Katie’s work will find no real surprises here: Katie keeps it upfront, keeps it tech, keeps the basslines and beat patterns firmly aimed at the club. All tracks sound as though they are the same tempo, possibly only really varying by about five beats per minute in either direction at any one time. But somehow with the lack of variation in tempo and style, Katie has produced an album that never feels repetitive, never gets boring and is musically interesting from beginning to end. How he does this is in many ways a bit of a mystery…

From the jacket sleeve the first thing that really pops out at you is the number of collaborations on the album. Justin Drake from Peace Division lends his sparse sensibilities to the opening 4/4 belter ‘Going Down’, Elite Force features on two tracks, Aquasky, Jono Fernandez, D Ramirez and Christian J also make appearances throughout the album. From this one might expect there to be a great variance in pattern or style, but as you listen a distinct impression is created that even though there are some of tech-breaks biggest names on the album, Meat Katie is the one who is well and truly steering the ship.

Standouts include the already released Christian J collab ‘Turn Me Out’ that samples Kathy Brown, the massive synth screamer of ‘Feathers’ featuring Aquasky (ITM-FM listeners will recognise this one from Klaus Hill’s latest Title Fight promo mix), the peak out discofied tech-funk of ‘Divine’ and well, to be honest, pretty much every track on the album. There is no single high point or low point overall that allows you to point to a particular track and say “this one is best or worst”… for listeners it will be simply a case of “this one is my favourite”.

That being said, Meat Katie is not trying to re-invent the wheel here. Tracks are upfront, club business. Even the numbers with fleshed out vocals (few and far between) such as the Katherine Ellis featuring ‘Round and Round’ could be weaved into a breaks set without too much trouble. But the twist is that tracks are body moving yet musically complex enough to be enjoyable to listen to, which is in many cases, a rarity. Tracks stand alone on the album (i.e. not mixed) but are sometimes almost blended into each other with a wiff of synth or wash of sound to keep a sense of energy to the overall experience, and are most welcome here.

In short – Meat Katie fans will be love this, breakbeat fans will dig it and those not musically inclined to tech breaks will still appreciate it. Get on it.