Various Artists

Do What You Want Forever: 10 Years of Local Action

Genre: GRIME / FWD, TECHNO / HOUSE

MP3
FLAC
WAV

Boomkat Product Review:

Roses and buckets of champagne to Local Action on their 10th anniversary (give or take) comp, marking more than a decade of sophisticate UK/US dance dialogue with label highlights from all the gang gang

Under Tom Lea’s expert guidance, Local Action has become a premier home of UK club music since its inception. Rooted in UKG’s ‘nuum splinter, and keenly supportive of its offshoots and American DNA, the label has both mirrored and steered trends over the decade, with plenty to show for it here, throwing down a diverse volley of Transatlantic bangers and genre benders from contemporary leading lights, including a number who cut their teeth on the label before going on to rule the dance both sides of the ocean.

Ripping it right back to early days, Mosca’s broken beat/2-step spin on T. Williams’ ‘Heartbeat’ gives us nostalgia for the days of decent MDMA, and Slackk’s wavey grime shanty ‘Blue Sheet’ hails the label’s involvement with the grime renaissance. DJ Q’s UKG hair-kisser ‘All That I Could’ and two Finn pearlers ’Sometimes…’ and ‘Do What You Want Forever’ locate the label’s key links with northern souls, and paved the way for likes of India Jordan, here with the Orbital-meets-Thomas Bangalter type zinger ‘For You’, while the likes of Liverpool’s E.M.M.A., with her synth waltz ‘Into Indigo’, and the likes of Loft (aka Aya) and 96 Back showcase just how wavey the label can get. The label’s other key strand of US club music is meanwhile repped strongly by Jersey club pioneers DJ Jayhood with the bumpy banger ‘Hands of Ya Hips’, and scene-leading queen UNiiQU3 on ‘Macrodosing’, with Martyn Bootyspoon keeping it freaky on the darkroom fructose frolics of ‘Lickety Split’, and the label’s most prominent artist Dawn Richard cementing the square root of it all in upfront US R&B.

MP3 Release (14)