I wonder if DJs use some sort of industry standard checklist in the studio to mark off everything required to produce a solid dance record. If so, the following is on said checklist: the beats have to remain consistent, but not too consistent. Even those tweaking on pills like a little variety in the club. In addition, certain influences completely absent from standard dance music must be included, manipulated to sound slightly less avant-garde and pieced together alongside the beat. Again, originality comes with what can be incorporated without sounding forced. Trying too hard on that count engenders more introspection than bumping and grinding. No need for that. Lastly, alongside the beat, the song must climax ever so effectively at pinpointed intervals, making sure the music maintains a certain peak and valley flow to keep the listener entertained for minutes on end. I believe the Dead Soul Brothers brought such a checklist to the studio and a result, did an above-average job at marking off all the boxes, as their debut is, all in all, relatively entertaining and danceable.

This collection is well short of brilliant, but it is passable in the world of sweaty, heavy trance, techno and experimental dance.  The opener and chunkiest track on offer, _‘Yeah Yeah Yeah’_ asserts a thump-heavy bass line that persists throughout much of the _EP_, adding a layer of funk under the beat’s padding.  This funk _- call it what you will cause in essence, it is not really funk but a bass line procured from the teats of funk -_ keeps the tracks consistent within each other, only disappearing at intervals to allow just enough experimentation to seep through.  The ethereal come down _‘1969’_ exemplifies this, but instead of ruining the theme, it refreshes the process.  It is hardly danceable; hardly musical even 'cause it is dissonant and boring, but it adds just enough time for a breather before the consistency picks right up again in the final three tracks, most noticeably on _‘Blessed’_, a thoughtful ditty bursting with computerized blips and bleeps, watery synths and that aforementioned bass-coiled circumference.  At times it borders on boring but it is thoughtful, which elevates it past much dance music practicing the lot.




While nothing to the likes of LCD Soundsystem or Daft Punk, _EP1_ makes me curious enough to welcome EP2 with open arms when it arrives in January.  Plus, with a forgettable but strategically placed remix of <I>'Come on Now'_ by the one and only Paul Epworth, this collection should get played in clubs and listened to by said club goers.  Apparently people still go to clubs.