Glenn Astro from Hessen likes to mix it up, as once again proven on »Throwback«. He throws together beatmaking and house, wraps it up in a few jazzy loops, allows soul and disco to pollinize it all and makes it all appear utterly effortless. He doesn’t have to decide between cornering, clubbing or getting stuck on the couch – it’s all there without standing in each other’s way. It rather converges, while Astro throws in a few stutter-steps off the reel, replacing the 4/4-time in the most natural manner. Percussions come thick and fast after a straight ntz-ntz-ntz-come-dance-with-me-baby, which is followed by a bass run screaming for glitter shirts, bell-bottoms, saxophones and xylophones. Chicago House’s warmth is snuggling with Detroit’s edges, New York’s boom bap fraternizes with L.-A.-beat-bass-nu-jazz-gimmicks. It’s nothing out of the ordinary, but it’s played out extraordinarily well. The record has soul, dancing legs and no head above the nodding neck. As an unhappy critic-snob, incapable of enjoying oneself, one could argue that Astro is a little too unconcerned about serving all possible styles which had their revivals in the previous years; and that he misses his very own signature. But hey: The skills with which Astro dips into the various genres, using the ink to write a coherent record, are signature enough.
Throwback
