by Sterling McGarvey

It's starting to look like the Year of Compost. Between knockout efforts from Koop and Jazzanova, the label has been hitting home runs in 2002. Add Minus 8 to that list. Somewhere in London, you can bet that Gilles Peterson is laughing maniacally in some vault full of knockout CDs that he's been handed during this banner year of the broken beat. You can also bet that Minuit ranks somewhere at the top of his stacks. Among Switzerland's premier nu jazz producers, Minus 8's fourth album stays consistently good and never fails to impress. On his latest effort for the label, he runs the sonic gamut from deep house to bossanova to the shuffling nu jazz-laden house one has come to expect from Central European producers to Latin-influenced drum n' bass (yes, Latin-influenced drum n' bass; I did not stutter).

The Spanish-tinged guitar flavor from "At the Beach" makes it a standout early on in the album. The shuffly beats and warm synths combined with an almost generic-sounding score sample on "White" give the sounds of Muzak some much-needed flavor. The skippy drums, blippy female vocals, and deep bass patterns of "Badman & Throbin'" sound like they'd fit effectively into someone's UK garage set. And then there's "A Concha Cor de Rosa." ¡Ay, dios mio! It might not be as heavily dnb-oriented as SUV's efforts on Full Cycle, but it's definitely a quality Latin dnb tune. The album folds with the heavy keys and droning synths of "Cold Fusion."

What makes Minuit such a good effort is that the quality does not wane throughout the fourteen tracks on the album. It's a subtly good CD that curls up around you and works its way into your palate slowly. Minus 8 flexes his muscles as an effective producer of various sounds. Besides, what's the last album that you bought that went from nu jazz and deep house to Latin drum n' bass?

Minuit
by Minus 8
Track Listing:

1. Sun
2. At the Beach
3. White
4. Badman and Throbin' [Gabor Deutsch Lovely Vocal Remix]
5. Starlight
6. Theia
7. Come Along, Again
8. Snowblind [the Amalgamation of Soundz Out of Mind Mix]
9. Runaway
10. Bossanova Feelin'
11. Do It the Way
12. Sometimes [Compost Original Edit]
13. Concha Cor de Rosa
14. Cold Fusion [Doctor Rockit's Sweaty Dutch Vest Mix]