Minus-8

Robert Jan Meyer returns with his fourth full-length and his follow-up to his remarkable Elysian Fields release. His previous release spawned two singles that made a little bit of noise in the dance community: "Badman & Throbin'" and, most notably, "Snowblind," which was used by Apple in their adverts. Oddly enough, these two tracks appear on Meyer's latest release in remix form and are slotted between the new material on the record. This form of rehashing material and blending it amongst new cuts sort of spoils the flow of a proper release. That aside, the fresh songs are divine, taking the Minus 8 formula of bossa-house and down-tempo jazz to combine an up-tempo-sounding record that's still suitable for lounging for you to melt with. There's endless amounts of lush beats to be had on Minuit, all filled with various keys, flute and vocal snippets (mainly from Elysian Field's counterpart Billie) as Meyer takes his Jazzanova approach to producing tracks further. Long removed are the days when Minus 8 approached a track from a hip-hop point of view, but luckily he's been able to master both his forms of music making.