DJ Marky & S.P.Y. Last Night / Love Affair

, - on 26/4/12

DJ Marky & S.P.Y.
Last Night / Love Affair
INNERGROUND

For the best part of a decade now, Sao Paolo-based DJ Marky has been at the forefront of the liquid funk scene, creating polyphonic, funk-infused rollers the likes of which have made an indispensable contribution to the sustained popularity of drum & bass. This might be machine music, but we all love a bit of melody and after all, you’ve got to keep the girls dancing.

As the first man to incorporate the sounds of such Brasilian staples as samba and bossa nova, Marky was almost single-handedly responsible for the creation of a sexy new subgenre - Drum & Bossa. With the wealth of musical diversity in Brasil at his fingertips, Marky has gone on to create an entire oeuvre of wonderfully upbeat breakbeat music that has inspired countless producers and allured the minds and souls of many more. Fellow Sao Paolo resident and producer extraordinaire, S.P.Y. was one of those to be influenced by the path that Marky had begun to pave back in ’96 and ever since, the two have frequently collaborated to triumphant effect.

Their latest offering on Marky’s own Innerground Records imprint continues with this tried and tested modus operandi with two sun-kissed slices of summery seduction that’ll have you scrambling for cheap flights out of this supposedly ‘drought-ridden’ country.

Last Night is typical Marky; the kind of non-descript liquid you can listen to in just about any setting, and that makes you question why you ever despaired for the decline of the genre. There’ll be no death of this music so long as Marky’s concerned. The more discerning of crate-diggers might also recognise the inclusion of a particular conga pattern that featured in TC’s King of Africa and harks back to that wonderful time when TC was actually any good.

On the flip, Love Affair is a stunning re-working of a track by the immortal queen of New York jazz, Billie Holiday. Looping the blissfully cheerful strings from The End of a Love Affair and deftly slotting in a beguiling sample from the peerlessly captivating voice of this timeless songstress, Marky and S.P.Y. once again strike gold with their simplistic approach. A luscious and languid jam with no pretention, Love Affair proves they can still blow most liquid producers out of the water, even after over ten years in the game. There’s no doubt this will be opening and closing sets around the world for a long time to come, so keep an ear out for that unmistakeable hook.