Talented French producer Yusek has released his debut album Away From the Sea, and its release comes after him being a fixture of the dance music scene for years with his singles and remixes featuring in many a killer DJ set. His reworkings of Ghostface Killah Charlie Brown, Van She Strangers and Chromeo Bonafied Lovin arguably surpassed the original material, while his original songs like Composer have been giving dance floors a workout across the globe.

Yuksek toured Australia with last year’s Parklife and that live set was first opportunity many of us had to hear his new material that’d feature on Away From the Sea. First single Tonight was one such song. Yuksek played Tonight complete with live vocals, and I remember being blown away by this song that I’d never heard before. All I wanted to know was how I could get my dirty little hands all over it. I believe a great test of dance music is to see how crazy a crowd reacts to a song that they’ve never heard before, and the Parklife crowd truly went apeshit.

Opening up Away From the Sea is Break Ya, which is an updated version of the 2007 track Composer. The original version still sounds fresh and this new version ups the ante a little bit, it’s not drastically different but original enough so long time fans shouldn’t feel ripped off.

Away From the Sea features collaborations from a diverse range of artists. Chromeo co-wrote and co-produced So Down, which also features the vocal stylings of Dave 1. it’s probably one of the best tracks Chromeo has been involved with, the mixture of cheesy vocals complimenting the French house beats without being lost in the funk that Chromeo’s own productions tend to be. Amanda Blank from Spank Rock features on Extraball, a song that is one of the album’s highlights. The music on the song is even good enough to allow the listener to ignore naff lyrics such as the chorus, which sounds like “I try to walk tall, even with the Extraball, it’s purely physical, I think you’re time is now.” I could be wrong about those lyrics. I hope I’m wrong. Shit Disco performs on one of the lesser songs of the album, This is Not Today. The song sounds like a collaboration with Moby.

Overall Away From the Sea is a pretty strong pop record. The CD is varied, something that’s at least partly due to the collaborators chosen. The change in pace of certain tracks allows Yuksek to show off his impressive range, which hasn’t been apparent in his prior singles and remixes. Even though the album’s mood does change considerably throughout, it still feels like an album, like a piece of work that fits smoothly together. Away From the Sea is an impressive debut from Yuksek, which hopefully will see him return to our shores in the near future to perform to a crowd who this time will be prepared.

Check out the tracklisting…

1. Break Ya
2. Tonight
3. A Certain Life
4. Extraball
5. Take A Ride
6. I Could Never Be A Dancer
7. So Far Away From The Sea
8. Little Dirty Trip (Vicarious Bliss remix)
9. This Is Not Today
10. I Like To Play
11. So Down
12. Freak O Rocker
13. Eat My Bear/Tonight

So what exactly was so impressive about Tonight? See for yourself…