There’s something not quite right about this second After Dark addition to the usually excellent Late Night Tales series, in which well known acts dazzle us with 20 or so laid back obscurities from across the decades.
Among the very best are those that help us to understand their influences, are eclectic and bring some new tracks to our attention. For example, Bonobo’s recent curation of the series did this well with the inclusion of Nina Simone’s Baltimore and Hypnotic Brass Ensemble’s Flipside.
But here we have merely a bland collection of laid back dance music, collected once again by the first After Dark release’s curator Bill Brewster.
To be fair to Late Night Tales they have tagged this After Dark collection as a “tangent” to the series, and offering a “DJ led club focused” sound.
Brewster goes further though and has confidently said of After Dark that it is “dance music for people who know how to make love.”
Sadly though on this evidence it’s an offshoot to the Late Night Tales brand that is perhaps more suited to people who know how to make bland, uneventful sex that is best forgotten. I can’t see too many genuine super studs rushing out to buy this.
The Salsoul Invention’s Soul Machine is about as interesting and sexy as this collection gets. While the Neurotic Drum Band’s supposedly sexy Neurotic Erotic Adventure is surely some kind of joke song so bad is its wooing ability.
I always imagine Late Night Tales best played as the title suggests, late at night and among a group of friends, chatting and enjoying the music. By attempting some kind of crude sexual “do you want to come back to my place while I play something boring” angle it sadly soils the good name of Late Night Tales.
Too often the tracks here sound like sad background music for people with nothing to say. If it is to lead to sex it’s likely to be reluctant and in a bid to avoid the tedium of most of this collection. Take Mugwump’s Boutade (Miseri Dub). The beat and riff go on, on and them on some more. It just wills you to press fast forward, fall asleep, have forgetful sex or at the very least search out a non-misery version.
Despite this stain on the brand’s name we remain firm fans of the Late Night Tales series and the usual love of music it conveys. Roll on the next better release.
2/10
By Joe Lepper
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