Lights Out
With his drum-heavy brand of minimalist progressive house, Steve Lawler has long breathed the recirculated air of the jet-set DJ, playing sets around the world and back. This latest Global Underground double-CD set has the tribal feel his fans have come to expect, and is a much more straightforward mix than hisNu Breedset released several years ago. Not as dark as aRichie Hawtin, or evenLos AngeleseraJohn Digweed, his approach is still pitch black and relentless, yet tempered with fun, sexy choices, like Thick Dick's "Orgasm," which brings the first CD to its, uh, climax. A slightly more varied second disc finds a similar sense of release in a remix of Desert's "I See the Light," while finding time to play with grinding, electro-inspired bits like Dirty Walter's "By Soul of Man." Both discs steadily raise the boom level throughout, providing a constant lift and a mesmerizing head bounce that, despite this not being a trance record in any way, provides a sexy, transcendent bliss nonetheless.--Matthew Cooke