Carter Bros – Full Disco Jacket review

The small Australian town of Mildura probably doesn’t rate on any lists of global disco hotbeds, yet it was here that the Carter Brothers story began, in the dusty farmland of regional Victoria. Upon relocating to Adelaide, South Australia, Gavin and Tim released an album on local imprint Cuckoo Music (2009’s Metropolitan) before falling under the global gaze of Dutch imprint Rush Hour, who subsequently snapped up the duo’s latest single “Full Disco Jacket”. Those who have heard the tracks on Metropolitan will be well aware of the Carter Bros style – analogue grooves ridden with aplomb from start to finish. While some producers like to take tracks on two or three tangents, these guys pick a simple-but-addictive loop and nail it.

There’s not much to either the original or the dub version, but to use this as a basis for criticism is to miss the point entirely. In this respect “Full Disco Jacket” brings to mind the best stripped back house tracks, like Kerri Chandler’s “Bar A Thym” – because what it does, it does brilliantly: locking into a filtered loop and driving it along for the track’s duration, with uplifting synth sweeps and deliciously addictive brass arrangements. The dub version keeps the same catchy hook and buries it beneath a tougher kick, with some shakers brought to the fore, again adhering to the ‘simple but effective’ school of thought. British producer Nebraska meanwhile does a sterling job on remix duties, chopping up the beat and adding occasional vocal snippets, extra layers of percussion and slightly comical brass farts, thus succeeding in presenting a viable alternative to the two original cuts.

Aaron Coultate