V/A – Magnum Vol. 1

The perfect appetiser for a much-cherished label...

Whether it be firearms, iconic ‘80s moustachioed private investigators, wine bottles that push the boat out, posh choc ices or prophylactics, ‘Magnum’ is a term that usually means business. Conceived in 2013, D.O.C. Records is the label of the international deep tech house higher power, Gui Boratto. Based on his four albums for Kompakt, the Brazilian isn’t one to give the dancefloor away easily, and so it proves where his countrymen and club imports create solemn warnings in the slyly charismatic mould of their mentor on D.O.C.’s ‘Magnum Vol. 1’.

Tracks glide across dancefloors without pretension, but without giving up a business-like attitude either. Although they have an air of firm authority, delivered from higher plains guarded by mean mugging sentinels with arms crossed and not prioritising pleasure or entertainment, they’re never toffee nosed to be impressed by their own being. AnT’s ‘Two Strangers’ nails the basics of Balearics, a fawningly hip vocal pinching a track that sounds like it prefers to stay out of the sun. L_cio’s ‘Schwantes’ brings angled house to the king’s quarters just north of a White Island sunset, but HNQO’s efficient computing on ‘Balinese Death’ homes in on the prevailing tension found in cloudless skies.

The showcase’s contributions may only be slight in construction and could have faults of being too clinical bordering on the sterile (Monotype’s ‘Começo’ treads such a loaded tightrope) levelled against them, but that radiating of authority does draw you in. Slight flies in the ointment, or the bastions of the label’s diversity (in fairness, pandering to Boratto’s occasional want), are M.A.S. and their electro-pop ‘Driven by You’ which lies on the vacuous side, and Come and Hell’s ‘Waste’, gripping electro-pop on a downward, gloomy spiral.

Nine tracks is the right sized appetiser – that under-wraps mentality making you explore the label further, resourcefully setting out its stall.

7/10

Words: Matt Oliver

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