'SPENCER PARKER ALBUM REVIEW: DANCE MUSIC'

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"An honest compilation of raw dance music energy.”

Spencer Parker is a creative talent who cannot be pinned down. The Croydon-born, Berlin-based artist is regularly found fluidly connecting the dots between pounding house, thumping techno, and dreamy disco; in basements, darkened warehouses, and legendary spaces. He is a seasoned selector who just tries to play good records and sets the standards high for track selection in doing so. His excellence as a selector filtrates into his work as a producer. He has consistently released merciless dancefloor destroyers and unique house music on his very own ‘Work Them Records’ and second home label 'Rekids'. This year has seen Spencer in perhaps his most impressive form to date. His DJ calendar has been fully booked and he has curated his own album launch parties at fabled techno institutions such as Concrete. Furthermore, ‘Work Them Records' has continued to grow and expand as Spencer has welcomed new talent such as P. Leone and Valya Kan with open arms. Recently, he released his second full compilation to date – ‘Dance Music’ on the label.

The album combines techno-infused house music made for the club with short recordings of Spencer's personal experiences travelling as a DJ that act as twinkling interludes. It is open to interpretation, but when I listen to 'Dance Music' from top to bottom, I like to put it into the context of a lengthy session in the rave. It flows elegantly and represents the countless emotions and feelings we get from clubbing. Our night gets underway with the downtempo, Andrew Weatherall style set opener ‘It Was Just a Dream’ which tells us that the DJ is going to send us a message through the music. ‘Three Dee NYC’ picks up perfectly from here; encouraging us to feel the rhythm a bit more and start to get into our groove. Then, once we have been finely tuned to the dancefloor, ‘The Power’ hits us hard with its striking heavy kick and euphoric tones. Now the rave is in full force. ‘The Oh’ is a perfect selection to follow. The atmosphere in the room continues to grow, as powerful kicks and snares are this time saturated with soft female vocals and graceful melodic expressions. Suddenly, our minds are invaded by warehouse style techno, designed for dark spaces, which switches our body functions to ‘Cruising Control’ enabling us to dance for hours on end, losing all concept of time. The sinister sounds of ‘Girl…’ continue this trend. Next comes another high-powered fist pumper; this time taking the form of pounding piano house - ‘Remember’. 

Mid-way through, the energy in the club reaches its pinnacle with the intimidating, heavy beats of 'Absolutely Raving'. We are far from normality now. The craziness is continued by electro sheller ‘Nights and Weekends’ and acid charged ‘Cash Only’ which make the wildest party even wilder. ‘Alone in a Crowd’ momentarily stabilises the madness with a persistent, potent beat skipping in and out of an enchanting xylophonic melody. Then another thumper rattles our brains. ‘You’re Under My Control Now’ sends everyone wild again, invading the mind and altering the cruise control function, stimulating us to dance even more aggressively. As we head towards the final stages of our lengthy session raving, the dancefloor is cleansed by the nostalgic introduction of ‘Emotional Tendencies’. This slows everything down and allows us to take a step back and reflect on how much we have enjoyed Dance Music. We can’t quite get our heads around this one. It seems so simple, but there is so much withheld beauty in it. This is a moment we will treasure forever. If this wasn't enough, 'Faster Forward' soothes our minds and represents a perfect round off to the rave. The shutters open and we are struck by beams of sunlight which send us home. 

This is Spencer’s most comprehensive and personal body of work to date. It stays true to him and what he is respected for – being diverse and highly energetic. Spencer impresses yet again with this honest compilation of raw dance music energy.


ARTIST: ‘SPENCER PARKER’
ALBUM: ‘DANCE MUSIC’
LABEL: ‘WORK THEM RECORDS’
RELEASE DATE: 12/10/18
STYLE: HOUSE/TECHNO
STAND OUT TRACKS: ABSOLUTELY RAVING // EMOTIONAL TENDENCIES // THE OH // YOU'RE UNDER MY CONTROL NOW

AVAILABLE NOW ON ALL PLATFORMS

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