Tal M Klein / Anthony Mansfield – For Juan Five review

Artist: Tal M Klein / Anthony Mansfield
Title: For Juan Five
Label: Aniligital
Genre: Disco/Nu Disco
Format: 12″, Digital
Buy From: Juno Records, Juno Download

Following the success of their previous collaborations, San Francisco residents Tal M Klein and Anthony Mansfield hook up once more on this enigmatically titled EP. Brought to us by Aniligital Music, For Juan Five takes us on a journey through cosmic disco via the three new tracks from the pair.

“Ciento Ocho,” meaning ‘108’ in Spanish opens the release in exactly that tempo. With deep, stretched out, hollow bass parts built around the crawling beat and light percussion, we get an eerily building disco texture here. Half way through comes a big breakdown that unveils a funkier element to proceedings complete with a rolling bass hook.  “Desayuno En Timpani’s” takes us further into the their cosmic atmosphere. Space keys echo alongside heavy drum parts and weird, otherworldly sounding flat basslines. Adding to the percussive theme, timpani drums feature throughout ensuring that the track never lets up its pace or purposefulness. Perfect for the bigger soundsystems, you get the sense that the bass from this one will resonate in the furthest reaches of the solar system.

Finishing the release is “Bomba De Tigre” which goes even deeper using the duo’s sub bass fuelled cosmic submarine. 808 kicks and old school keys join 303 basslines to explode into a full scale house assault in a track that bridges the gap between cosmic and early house. Forging a truly unique sound for themselves, Tal M Klein and Anthony Mansfield continue to see success as a collaborative pair. The For Juan Five EP is simply them raising the stakes and digging deeper into their captivatingly unearthly sound palette.

Review: Tom Jones