MIC Vinilo y CD

Review: All hail brand new label MIC (Music Inspires Change), launching with five never-before-heard jams from cult 80s fusionist and groove buccaneer Mike Collins, the jazz funk pro magician who was responsible for a number of iconic hits in the 80s. Behind-the-scenes he was also flexing serious synth muscles, setting the foundation for the house explosion that happened by the end of the decade. From the b-boy finesse of "Phat Back Beats" to the jazzier wriggles and flare of "Halfway House" by way of the cosmic bossa of "Latino Beats", each track was way ahead of its time and continues to have resonance to this day.

Review: The MIC label has undoubtedly been one of the best things to happen this year. The London independent kicked off a few months ago with an excellent hidden gem by Mike Collins, a fringe drum machine enthusiast from the 80s, which was a record that we saw as totally unmissable (and one which flew of our shelves like hotcakes!). The imprint is back with LAPS, a cold wave duo who are making similarly stripped-back machine music, except that these two girls have only been around for a few years. This is a great signing from an indie, because it's the sort of crew that will likely be picked up by a bigger label in the future. The duo's sounds linger in mid-air beautifully, from the opening shots and burst of "Gush", to the more dancehall-flavoured chants of the leading "Who Me?", and the pensive twists and turns of "Ode To Daughter". "Edges" oozes a thick bass amid stepping drums, whereas "Lady Bug" offers the only real moment of r&b delight, all filtered through a raw and loose sort of framework. Top stuff. We love this label.

Review: Last year, we got a bit giddy with excitement over MIC's first two releases, which presented lost music from a 1980s drum machine enthusiast and a swathe of new cuts from Glaswegian cold-wave oddballs LAPS. The label's first missive of 2018 comes from rising star Lord Tusk and is every bit as good as its predecessors. Taken as a whole, it's rather hard to pigeonhole, featuring as it does tracks that variously fuse together sounds variously associated with post-punk dub, weirdo deep house, turn of the '90s London dub house (check the brilliant "Don't Be Shy"), the Art of Noise ("Beyond Limitation") and the dream house/dusty breakbeat fusions we've come to expect from Project Pablo and Jayda G ("Champion Lovers"). Throughout, it remains spaced-out, fuzzy and eccentric.