• Basket
  • Music Jobs
  • Login / Register
  • Login
  • Register
Resident Advisor
×
Search
Submit
Did you mean
×
  • Resident Advisor
  • Magazine
    • News
    • Reviews
    • Features
    • Videos
  • Listings
    • Events
    • Clubs
    • Festivals
    • Photos
  • Music
    • Artists
    • Mix of the day
    • DJ Charts
    • Podcasts
  • Search
  • Reviews
  • /
  • Albums

Various - 4 Down

    • Label /
      Deek Recordings
      DEEK017LP
    • Released /
      October 2019
    • Style /
      Pop
    • Previous
    • Next
    Various - 4 Down Various - 4 Down

    Bullion compiles pop-celebrating covers of Elliot Smith, Fleetwood Mac and Simon & Garfunkel.

    Various - 4 Down Bullion, the London producer living in Lisbon, spends his time reckoning with history. Specifically, Nathan Jenkins is involved in an exhaustive study of the perfect pop song. A few times a week, Jenkins and a loose confederation of musicians, DJs, label owners and journalists add a few entries to Pop-not-slop, an ongoing playlist that rigorously defines the jaunty aesthetic Jenkins explores with his own productions and his label, Deek Recordings. There's a joyful anarchy to the list, with '80s chart-toppers like Tears For Fears sitting alongside Martin Newell's cult group Cleaners From Venus, Electric Light Orchestra next to Dunkelziffer, and so on. Jenkins is trawling pop's dustbin, finding the best bits so you don't have to.

    This concept is extended on Deek's covers compilations, now in its fourth iteration with 4 Down. On the 11-track set, Bullion presents irreverent studies of brilliant pop songs, old, new, popular and obscure. Jenkins himself has a hand in four of the tracks, with other contributions coming mostly from emerging or underground artists like Kreme (of CS + Kreme), or London up-and-comers Joviale and M. T. Hadley. We get the sense that Bullion is honing both his studio and A&R skills, fashioning himself as a modern version of 4AD's production mainstay John Fryer. A more modern analogue might be Todd Terje, who studied the subtle dynamics of disco with a series of legendary edits before fully embarking on his own takeover.

    But all this makes 4 Down sound like an airless exercise. This is pop music after all, and the inventive approach Bullion and his cohort bring to these covers is often startling and always a lot of fun. Highlights include Joviale and Bullion's spectral dancehall reading of Rare Silk's 1985 algorithm hit "Storm" and M.T. Hadley's transposition of the tightrope vocal melody on Elliot Smith's "Easy Way Out" into an off-kilter synth pop arrangement. Then there's the Deek supergroup Nautic (comprising Jenkins, Laura Groves and Timmaz Zolleyn), who turn in a wistful take of Fleetwood Mac's "Only Over You," a perfect complement to System Olympia's stripped-down reading of Mazzy Star's sad pop landmark "Fade Into You."

    Bullion's pristine approach shines on his collaboration with Westerman, a Balearic take on Simon & Garfunkel's "Kathy's Song," but he's also recruited a couple of weirdos to stir the pot. Kiki Kudo & Brian Close's take on Elsa's maudlin 1986 French pop song "T'en Va Pas" sounds like a MIDI-assisted Penguin Cafe Orchestra, while Kreme confuses with a bizarre Auto-Tuned version of Larry Heard's "Missing You."

    The focus of Pop-not-slop and the covers compilations is the elegant '80s, which sometimes means that the natural, swinging funk of a cut like Bill Withers' "Heartbreak Road," which Bullion covers here, gets lost in the translation to synths and drum machines. Still, in a scene often obsessed with sound design and functionality, Jenkins' spotlighting of pop songcraft is admirable. On 4 Down, his reverence for a great song is contagious, and the studious enthusiasm of the artists here makes the compilation, like the songs covered, worth treasuring.
    • Published /
      Sun / 24 Nov 2019
    • Words /
      Matt McDermott
    • Share
    • Tracklist /
      01. Joviale - Storm
      02. Camila Fuchs - Inside Out
      03. C.A.R. - Making Plans For Nigel
      04. Westerman - Kathy's Song
      05. System Olympia - Fade Into You
      06. M. T. Hadley - Easy Way Out
      07. Nautic - Only Over You
      08. Kiki Kudo & Brian Close (Georgia) - T'en Va Pas
      09. Kreme - Missing You
      10. Bullion - Heartbreak Road
      11. Nathan Micay & Ben Osborne - Watching Trees
    0/
  • Popular reviews

    • Post a comment

      Sam Smith - I Feel Love (Donna Summer Cover)

    • Post a comment

      FKA twigs - MAGDALENE

    • Post a comment

      Karenn - Grapefruit Regret

    • Post a comment

      Andy Stott - It Should Be Us

    • Post a comment

      Rewind: Mari Kvien Brunvoll ‎- Everywhere You Go (Villalobos Mix)

    • Post a comment

      Rewind: Choice - Acid Eiffel

    • Post a comment

      Various - WXAXRXP Sessions

    • Post a comment

      Moor Mother - Analog Fluids Of Sonic Black Holes

    0/
    • More on Deek Recordings

      Deek Recordings

      British record label started by Nathan Jenkins (Bullion) & Mikey Stirton.
      View the full label profile

    • Reviews

      • 7 comments

        Bullion - Loop The Loop

    0/
  • Related artists

    Ben Osborne
    Ben Osborne
    Bullion
    Bullion
    System Olympia
    System Olympia
    C.A.R.
    C.A.R.
    Kiki Kudo
    Kiki Kudo
    Nathan Micay
    Nathan Micay
    0/
    • RA
    • Copyright © 2019 Resident Advisor Ltd.
    • All rights reserved
    • Privacy & Terms
    • Cookie Policy
    • Resident Advisor /
    • About
    • Advertise
    • Jobs
    • 24/7

    • RA Tickets /
    • My Tickets
    • Ticketing FAQ
    • Resale
    • Sell tickets on RA
    • Submit event

    • Apps /
    • RA Guide
    • RA Ticket Scanner
    • Elsewhere /
    • Watch on YouTube
    • Follow on Facebook
    • Listen on Apple Music
    • Stream on Spotify
  • RA is also available in Japanese. 日本版
    • RA on YouTube
    • RA on Facebook
    • RA on Twitter
    • RA on Instagram
    • RA on Soundcloud