If you’ve been into any facet of house music over the last decade you would have come across the irresistible grooves of Chris Todd and Jim Baron. The founding members of Crazy Penis (circa 1995) – or as they’re known in the UK “Crazy P” – they first got my attention thanks to their association with legendary deep house label Naked Music. Appearing on Carte Blanche Vol. 2 and providing a mind-blowingly sexy remix to Central Living’s ‘Everyday’ (with Lisa Shaw on vocals), I turned my full attention to the duo.

Following on, Crazy Penis’ breakthrough song was ‘There’s A Better Place!’ from their second album, ‘The Wicked Is Music’. It famously sampled the ‘Pure Imagination’ song from Willy Wonky & The Chocolate Factory. After a couple of albums, the duo became a group adding bassist Tim Davies, percussionist Mav and vocalist Danielle Moore, and she now handles all singing duties on their albums. It’s interesting to note that ‘Stop Space Return’ is actually a re-packaged version of an LP they released earlier this year; ‘Love On The Line’. Oddly, it was only available in Australia, but ‘Stop Space Return’ features a re-jigged tracklist and two new songs, prepping it for release in the UK.

A major part of the group’s appeal is that, while they’re primarily an electronic-based production unit, all of their music is imbued with a real live and organic sound. This is mostly due to the crafty mixing of the live and the programmed elements, making Crazy Penis a natural extension of the 80s “boogie” music which harmoniously wedded live and programmed components to create something incredibly fresh and phat. Above all else, Crazy P have rarely made something half-assed. They put their heart and soul into each project, and each individual song. This, once again, is abundantly evident on ‘Stop Space Return’.

The musical tapestry (yeah, I said tapestry) is the same old Crazy Penis vibe, but with a modern twist. By that, I mean there are enough synths, electro basslines and riffs to cater to the younger house heads out there, but it maintains the organic approach by offering up “songs”, rather than looped and repetitive beats. ‘Lie Lost’ and ‘Wishing For’ lean more heavily in the live/organic section, sounding like a modern take on anything that could’ve been released from MJ’s ‘Off The Wall’. This album also has CP stretching out a little and heading into modern disco/punk/borderline-Joy-Division territory, which groups like Cassius also experimented with on their last album. Tracks like ‘Give A Little’ and ‘Too Far’ still maintain the CP status quo, but also put into play some live elements which no doubt would be showed-off in full at their gigs.

‘Fascination’ is… fascinating (and y’all wonder why I’m a reviewer), sounding like an inspirational 80s up-tempo classic. It’s another one of CP’s strengths, akin to Chicken Lips, incorporating the best of the 80s sound while providing a modern take on it. ‘Over To You’ is probably the most musical and melodic I’ve heard from the band, harking back to 90s acid jazz, something like really early Jamiroquai, Incognito or Brand New Heavies. It’s not surprising at all, considering where the group originated from. It’s nice to hear them showing off their obvious musical breadth as the track wears on (for a full 12:50!), before they kick back into a slow-ish number, aka ‘The Bonus Track’.

Once again, Crazy Penis come with a solid album that is end-to-end niceness, only this time with a bit of an edge that puts it a cut above the rest.