Bubble Club – The Goddess review

Over the past 12 months, Dan Keeling has impressed greatly with his productions under the Bubble Club moniker. The self-released “Lonely Acid”, “Morning Star” and “Violet Morning Moon” all demonstrated an innate ability to rise above the sea of mediocrity engulfing nu-disco, with carefully chosen remixes complimenting his brilliant disco/nu-disco/deep house fusions.

As good as those singles were, none were quite as impressive as this debut for the ever-reliable International Feel imprint. Where those quietly sparkled, “The Goddess” shimmers. Seemingly keen to fit in with International Feel’s relaxed ethos, Keeling offers up a sumptuous midtempo Balearic disco groove that’s so tasty, it’s almost edible.

“The Goddess” lazily rises and falls throughout, building rush-inducing pressure via layer upon layer of perfectly pitched instrumental elements – from spiralling sitar lines and sweet organ chords to soaring strings, distant flute samples and even some dubby vocal snippets. It’s truly mesmerizing, and as Balearic as they come.

As if that wasn’t enough, Quiet Village deliver their best remix for some time. Their 12-minute, delay-laden epic is not quite as wonky and ketamine-induced as their classic reworks of Gorillaz and Allez Allez, but it inhabits similar territory. Crucially, though, there are uplifting elements amongst the foreboding, delay-laden percussion, paranoid atmosphere and reverb-heavy organ chords. It’s this combination of light and dark elements that makes the remix so spellbinding.

Matt Anniss