Five years have now passed since Boogie Café Records was established as an outlet for soul-flecked dance floor jams. The Bristol-based label has grown exponentially in that time, with a succession of highly regarded releases attracting a swathe of higher profile artists to the roster.

The latest is Russian heavyweight Alexander Lay-Far, a producer whose blends of deep house, disco, boogie, soul, jazz and broken beat have appeared on labels including Local Talk, Atjazz, City Fly, Lazy Days, Leng and the In-Beat-Ween Music imprint he established in 2015.

The Moscow-based producer’s first outing on Boogie Café is entitled “Re-Imagine Yourself”; it seems a fitting name, because across the four sample-heavy tracks Lay-Far brilliantly joins the dots between disparate sounds and styles whilst retaining his trademark warmth and soul.

Check first “Embrace The Contradictions”, a deliciously sub-heavy broken beat number bristling with hazy Fender Rhodes chords, glassy-eyed female vocal snippets, funky samples, wobbly analogue bass motifs and cowbell patterns slyly sampled from a disco-boogie classic. Bustling breakbeat number “Spiral Movement” follows, with Lay-Far invoking the spirit of 1989 via dreamy chords, cut-up vocal blasts, short-sharp rave sirens and hip-house style beats.

The latter half of the EP is deliciously warm and woozy, with Lay-Far wrapping enveloping pads, ear-catching synthesizer flourishes and yearning melodies around off-kilter broken beats and sturdier sub-bass. Of the two tracks, it’s “Something Else” that’s arguably the most potent of the pair despite its’ inherent deepness – think Bugz In The Attic style beats and fireside-warm musicality – but closing cut “April” is not far behind. Lay-Far has successfully re-imagined himself for Boogie Café and the results are little less than stunning.



DJ Support:

Sean McCabe, Lord Byron, Shy One, Alexander Nutt, IG Culture, EVM128, Dj Nature, Aroop Roy, Andy Compton, Admin, Red Rackem, Cengiz, Mark Force, Lord Leopard.[info sheet from distr.]