Club music has its own micro-universe, with its own rules, jargon, and fans. It also has globe-trotting stars most people have never heard of. Much of the music is functional, to be danced to at 3.00 AM on MDMA, no more, no less, unconcerned with the usual structures and frameworks of rock and pop. In this world, Hot Since 82 is a kingpin.
Yorkshire DJ-producer Daley Padley adopted the Hot Since 82 moniker seven years ago and has made a name for himself since, DJing all over the world. He released an album in 2013 and has fired out many tunes and remixes since, garnering multi-millions of streams. He’s a connoisseur clubbers’ DJ, not a post-EDM cheeser, which is to say he’s not aiming at daytime radio, he’s aiming at the smarter dancefloors of Ibiza.
This particular release arrives with a note that says, “8-track is a concept devised by Hot Since 82 which allows artists to create a body of work beyond the limitations of a single or EP,” as if such a release were a new idea, but, setting that aside, reaction to the nine (!) tracks on board will depend, mostly, on whether the listener has danced all night to a DJ in the 21st Century, preferably in a warm holiday location on Ecstasy.
Balearic 4/4 chuggers roll sweetly by, creating a mood of warmth and ease, occasionally with new age spoken word interludes, mostly by Gem Cooke, that whisper things like “step into this blue light”. Any techno threat is absent but, by the same token, although the pleasantly bouncing “Loungin” has a gentle bell motif, there’s no tendency towards unlovely trop-house gorgonzola.
The first four tracks are all around eight minutes long. Bubbling on rolling basslines, they coax the initiated, massaging their dopamine neurotransmitters, slowly sating. The album works via interlayering melodic tones that swirl about each other and the beats in a shifting mood of tribalist euphoria. The only track that ups the ante is “Remains of the Day” prior to the final “Rest Your Head” wherein Padley proves he can muster fine-tuned non-dancefloor electronica.
For many, 8-track will drift by as background throb, bar sounds as chat backdrop, but for those club-awakened, paying that sort of attention, it may hold balmy treats.
Below: Listen to "Buggin'" by Hot Since 82 featuring Gem Cooke
