Veteran of the Australian music scene, Mark Walton has been serving up phat beats and party vibes on Australian and international dance floors for the best part of 20 years. Along with the release of his latest album Fretless comes a new label and a new army of collaborators.

Aside from his long standing credo as top-notch DJ, Mark Walton has contributed to the success of hip-hop outfits The Resin Dogs and Good Buddha, with other achievements including a compilation record The history of Electro and a cracking debut album Wet Pants. Walton’s latest offering is the result of his collaboration with sixteen artists with contributions by some of Australia’s finest talent including Funk’n Irie, Agent9, Ranji from Good Buddha and Simon Durrington from The Bird to name but a few.

The twelve-track LP is a pilgrimage through a plethora of genres and paces. Effortlessly spanning from chill through reggae-breaks and bottom heavy funk to rolling jungle, Walton somehow manages to keep things sweet and smooth leaving the album to play seamlessly through from start to finish.

The album kicks off slow and steady with a groovy take on the time-honoured J.J. Cale classic Cocaine. Keeping the mood laid-back, Sweaty Attic features the sultry vocals of Aussie diva Ranji. Taking it up a notch via the b-boy rap of Agent 9 aka The Visionary paves the way for the authentic late 80s feel of Got it Like which is reminiscent of Grandmaster Flash in his heyday with a dash of Resin Dogs flavour.

With the help of the rub-a-dub vocals of Funk’n Irie (Patt Powell), Walton forages through the somewhat uncharted waters of reggae-breaks in Move Your Likkle Ting with great success. To even out the equation nicely the funky electro lounge feel of Groovin with extended keys solo by Brendan St. Ledger has a real Stevie Wonder quality to it. Throw in a soulful organ and the spacious muted trumpet of Brook Ayrton and the result is sure to have you bopping.

A standout track is the relentless, phat beat held together by the twanging guitar of Feelin Fretty which is destined to be a dance floor hit. The icing on the cake of this six minute bottom-heavy jungle escapade is the unleashing of a flurry of non-stop Tom Drums that – to quote a sample in the track – ‘creates a hypnotic influence over its listeners’. On top of all this the album is dabbled with pacey jungle in End of Time, Latin rhythms and bouncy baselines in Cosita and downright grooviness in the form of Walter’s Place. To round it all off nicely For Da Mind is the album’s blues guitar infused outro that leaves you with the sweet taste of summer.

Walton has witnessed the coming and going of many trends, so it’s no surprise that Fretless is as original as it is progressive while nodding its head to the roots of electronic music. Fretless is purely and simply a winner record that is fodder for any self respecting DJ, it features a number of standout tracks that are sure to tear the roof off dance floors and lounge rooms around the globe.