Like head-honcho Jesse Rose, Made To Play has found a sound located somewhere between the often madcap, so-called ‘fidget’ sub-genre and the supposedly deeper electronic strains that emanate from its base city of Berlin. As a result, it has achieved something similar to much of the output from San Francisco’s DirtyBird where the same track is versatile enough to work as a subtle moment in a tougher DJ set or represent a wackier moment from a spinner more closely aligned with some sublime underground scene.
Then there are those that will exclusively air this kind of material. And that can be a problem. So, sure, these records do fit together really well and Zombie Disco Squad’s seamless blend of re-edited cuts from MTP’s vaults for CD2 is testament to that. Yet as a complete package, it often lacks extremes of light and shade. The inclusion of Duke Dumont’s rework of Idiotproof’s ‘The Deacon’ only serves to highlight this when an ominous rumbling groove gives way to a barrage of rave stabs. It’s a stand-out cut that could possibly reflect (in truncated form) just how Made To Play’s output works when programmed by others.
Otherwise this is a survey of some solid club records – perhaps culminating in an updated tribal/tech-house aesthetic akin to golden era Sound Factory and Twilo being shoe-horned into Panorama Bar. Not at all bad, of course, but familiarity could easily breed contempt.
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