This is Luciano’s party mix album, complementing his successful Ibiza season of the same name, and it keeps the principles that have made his ‘Sci.Fi.Hi.Fi’ and Fabric mixes such collectors’ items. Yet ‘Vagabundos’ is a lot less subtle in the way it goes about its business, getting in to the groove straight away and never letting up. The way he blends a number of different tracks together in pursuit of basic, primal dancing has never failed to amaze, but here the focus is much more slanted towards the everyday, hence the appearance of James Blake’s vocals in a combination track that includes Trickski and Francesco Tristano. When vocals do appear they are brilliantly layered – check out Whirlpool Productions’ ‘From Disco To Disco’ across tracks 9 and 10. Once Luciano gets up a head of steam he then plays out with his own remix of Cesar Merveille’s wonderfully timeless ‘Maayancholy’, which is trance music in the truest sense of the word, describing the hypnotic rhythm and chords that seem to go on forever. This is dance music stripped back to its first principles.
5 out of 5
Reviewed By Ben Hogwood
