The day "Night Works" hit the street, Sept 10th 2002, I was in London, the very city where Layo Paskin and Matthew Benjamin (aka you figure out who!) are based and launch their worldwide sonic attacks from. The End, Layo's legendary club and also their record label, is home base and you can go see them spin when they are not touring the world or working as residents in Ibiza or in Brazil. These two talented young men have totally different backgrounds: Layo grew up in a liberal and wealthy North London family and started organizing parties even before he turned 18 - Matthew studied music and studio engineering in West London and toured Italy at age 13 eventually becoming a Dj for the Rat Pack club and the Radio Rental pirate station Sunrise FM. They served London's and Europe's underground scene with loyal devotion and with the right spirit and are rewarded today with thousands of fans who highly acclaim them and who once even sit down instead of dancing as a mark of respect.
Unfortunately I never had the pleasure to listen to their 1998 debut "Low Life", so their nicknames made me think of some Jamaican motor-mouth speaker blasting rhymes over techno tunes crossfaded by some other wild dude (which I would have nothing against), but I must say what I found was different than what I expected, yet even more rewarding! I rarely listened to a quite delicious blend of acid house, techno, jazz, acid-jazz, breakbeat, blues, electro, dub and trip-hop... Transparently segueing lucid and well thought-out sets of killer tunes and crossfading the shit out of it, the array of sonorities give life to well-painted soundscapes that live a life of their own according to a higher design made of cutting-edge technological music with a real vibe to it, a vibe you can feel even without the 2000 watts subwoofer (of course that would help the experience...).
The eclectic sound sculptures portrayed in "Night Works" make me wanna fly over there right now, but I guess I'll have to wait for my next London immersion to get down to business. The fourteen tracks went by so quickly that I had to re-listen to write a detailed review cause I was so entranced by the complex distillation. This is a truly great album indeed and I suggest ya all get down the dancefloor and break it down!