Jacques Renault – The Tuesday EP review

I saw Jacques Renault DJ once in a hot, musty, dimly lit room in South London. The New Yorker’s sweaty face was beset with a wide grin, and frankly I suspect he may have been under some sort of musical influence. I recall he had a propensity for seeking out undiscovered areas of the volume gains, and, more importantly, was great fun to dance to.

When not releasing original records as one half of Runaway, Mr. Renault enjoys unleashing edits upon the world, gladly steering clear of anything too obvious and regularly exploring outside of the disco realm. His editing style is very rough and ready, with a healthy dose of echo effects to cover up any misaligned nonsense. It feels quite homemade but for that reason it has that classic razor-blade’n’tape feel. The Tuesday EP contains four doses of disco edit fun, released in a picture disc format replete with superb artwork.

The horn-led title track “Young Single and Free” is a largely instrumental sassy disco stomper, though the eponymous vocals come in for the chorus towards the end. Effective dancefloor stuff. “Dancing in the Sky” is a serotonin-tinged sing-along that arguably owes a lot to Chic (in fact if it was produced by Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers I wouldn’t be all that surprised). The last track, “In The City” is a delightfully soulful end-of-night affair, just mellow enough to help wind-things down but with enough kick to keep people shuffling.

It’s the throbbing, one-note bass of “Come On Y’all” with its clavinet tinkering, synth outbursts and uplifting string sections that will arguably be raising the most smiles. The Paul Sabu original (“We’re Gonna Rock”) has a lead male vocal that some might find grating, making this edit particularly useful. All in all a killer EP.

Review: Simon Busby