Late Night Tales Presents After Dark (Various Artists)

Late Night Tales introduces a tangent to the timeline of the esteemed artist curated compilation series with 'After Dark': A DJ led, club focused mix which - as expert compiler Bill Brewster describes - "is dance music for people who know how to make love". After Dark. It's New York at 4am with the lights off and the strobes flaring. It's a Dalston basement with slow chugging basslines propelling a dancefloor. It's a starlit night on the coast of Croatia with glittery girls and burnished boys grooving to 110bpm anthems. It's great dance music with the Bosh-O-Meter turned to 0. If you want pounding trance, Lance, you've come to the wrong place. If you want a drop, break or explosion every 16 bars, then Swedish House Mafia is that way. This is music for dancers who know to move. It's slow release carbs, with a startlingly high pleasure count. We're starting slow and staying that way. Groove is in the art. Unearthed gems include a brilliant Padded Cell mix of the Doves that's thus far remained in the CD wallets of the lucky few, a previously unreleased remix of the magnificent Twin Sister, a couple of unreleased tunes by Tad Wily and Beans & Company, plus the rare-as-hen's-teeth mega disco tune 'Love the Way You Love Me' by Yorkshire's finest diva-comic Marti Caine. Also along for the ride are a quartet of French beauties, namely TBS ft. Jamalski, a brilliantly off the wall Joakim production; there's -M - (known to his maman as Mathieu Chedid, son of French chanteur Louis), whose 'Machistador' comes replete with a fantastic Philip Zdar remix, while one of Bill's heroes I:Cube delivers a terrific reworking of Karma's 'Beach Towel'. The Gaulish tour concludes with a contribution from François K, whose dubby remix of Herbest Moon is full of the recommended amounts of after dark atmosphere. The session closes with Asha Puthli's dramatic and floaty 'Space Talk', a brilliant song recorded by an Indian singer using some of the best session players from the UK, US and - why not? -Germany. Bill Brewster comes armed with a sensitivity and sense of occasion that few other DJs possess. Originally a chef, a football pundit (co-editor of fanzine When Saturday Comes) and record collector, Bill began DJing in in the late 80s, but he cut his teeth playing Low Life warehouse parties in Harlem and the East Village and anyone hearing Bill today can see how these New York 'roots' shine through. for eclecticism, surprises, amazing unique music and sheer long-haul dedication to the dance-floor; Bill's your man. His other life is as a writer. Together with long-term pal Frank Broughton, Bill is author of the definitive history of DJing, 'Last Night a DJ Saved My Life', the uniquely sardonic DJ manual 'How to DJ (Properly)' and has contributed his acid Grimsby wit and encyclopaedic knowledge of music to just about every dance rag there is, not to mention the Guardian, Independent and Mail on Sunday.