Glenn Astro – Throwback

I became aware of Glenn Astro’s debut album at the beginning of May and got my pre-order in without hesitation. I didn’t even need to listen to the samples – I knew it would be a highlight of the year. I have not been in the slightest bit disappointed – the pre-order was up for download on the day I flew out to my holiday and ‘Throwback’ has very much become the soundtrack for the next couple of weeks and beyond.

Opening out with sinister keys in collaboration with Max Graef, the mood is set in a jazzy manner. If you’ve followed either Astro or Graef of late, you’ll be familiar with their vintage sound experiments, arranging antique jazz, funk, soul and groove samples into retro cuts set to a modern electronica framework. Followers of the modern deep house scene will be used to forward thinking producers like Astro, which experiment through various genres of electronic music without being limited to that familiar 4/4 pulse. It has become the norm these days, which as a lover of experimental music, can only really be a plus and what better place to go utterly genre crazy than on an album? The fifteen tracks of Throwback are indeed as the title suggests but the production is so incredible, so meticulous that it steers completely clear of being cheesy. In track four, Astro is clearly as adept in producing Hip Hop as he is at making House – further demonstrated with 4 My Peeps. Bochum is deep and percussive whilst in ‘Still Shining’ we have a lovely downtempo jazz groove which is a standout track. Max Graef returns to collaborate in Kilometer Disco which is a more upbeat piece, drenched in funk and disco. Downtempo Odland is yet another highlight-warm swathes of synth and funky breaks collide. The following tracks really do make for a solid close to this record, which has been a standout album for this year and in the latter moments, the Housiest moments are present in A Bit Warmer. Highly recommended