Various – Bustin’ Loose review

Artist: Various
Title: Bustin’ Loose
Label: T&A
Genre: UK Funky/UK Garage/2 Step Garage
Format: Digital
Buy From: Juno Download

Party rockers DJ Ayres and Jesse Tittsworth have built up a huge following over last five years off the back of hundreds of cheeky Baltimore Club remixes, covering everything from The Ramones to Daft Punk and everything in between. They pretty much rule the east coast – hosting the infamous It’s The Rub parties in NYC and through to Washington where Tittsworth’s just opened his own venue.

On top of all this, their label T&A is in rude health and now drops this fourth compilation of various goodies guaranteed to kick a party off in a matter of seconds. The extended T&A family are all here – Dave Nada, Rob Threezy, Starks and Nacey and Fool Gold boss Nick Catchdubs – and the result is a winning combination of styles. Keeping things on a Bmore tip, Tittsworth’s mix of Threezy’s “Round House” rearranges the big electro stabs into a pumping and expansive peak-time banger while Dave Nada’s “Drummer’s Rock” is a stone-cold classic with chopped-up brass riffing on the seminal Bmore anthem “Samir’s Theme”. Rob Threezy’s “The Chase” was a huge tune last summer, getting plays from Diplo and A-Trak amongst others, and Ayres weighs in with a funky minimal version of his own on Bustin’ Loose.

Dubstep gets a look in on Udachi’s mix of “Got Me Gone”, while 12th Planet and Flinch do some serious damage on their mix of “Apocalypse Theme”, which contains enough wobble to choke a horse. Ayres’s hip-hop cuts with rapper GLC are yet another successful shift in styles, with “Got Me Gone” both excelling in it’s smooth and polished original form, and also in spaced-out mixes from Cabin Bwoy and Southern Fried’s Proper Villains. Add to that the chunky crossover electro of Steve Starks and the 70’s disco swagger of Smalltown Romeo’s mix of Lydia and you’ve got a heavy collection of brilliant dance floor workers all wrapped up and ready to go.

Review: Oliver Keens