PLAYGROUP - Playgroup

What hasn’t Trevor Jackson in the music industry? From designing record sleeves in the early days of acid house and hip-hop and remixing the likes of Massive Attack, Unkle, Death In Vegas of U2, under his Underdog guise, to setting up his own imprint, Output, the man has been a consistent element of the dance scene of the past twenty years. So, he could well take it easy these days,
Instead, Jackson has put together Playgroup, and put in it all he has accumulated over the years, recruiting the services of Edwin Collins, ex-Happy Mondays’ Rowetta, Roddy Frame, original Bikini Kill riot grrl Kathleen Hannah, long time Leila collaborator Luca Santucci or Jamaican toaster Shinehead to give an ultimate kick to an already clever record. Pulling influences from funk, disco, new wave, hip-hop, electro, trip-hop, dub and so on, Jackson presents here an album that relies heavily on the past, only to reshape it with such vigour that it nearly sounds too modern for its own good. The constant change of direction could well have been the downfall of this record, but it is in fact its very attraction. Chaotic ride if there was any, Playgroup is a frisky piece of kaleidoscopic dance floor sensation, a burning slice of funk, with fiery punk outbursts (Bring It On, Make It Happen), and occasional waves of heavenly cool (Pressure, Surface To Air) and torrid sensualism (Overflow, Fatal), that grabs the listener from the first moments of the Prince-like Number One, first single to be lifted from the album, and never lets go. It is obvious that Jackson has learnt to mix genres with style, and God does he use his experience and talent to the full. Playgroup is almost the anti-thesis of Daft Punk. Where the French duo present an almost clinical disco-funk, Jackson has real guitars, heavy sax and most of all, attitude. In fact, this album is almost the anti-thesis of anything going at the moment. Here, Jackson looks at the future with hungry eyes, eager to escape the mediocrity of the current dance scene to invent, as he display the utmost creative thinking heard on a dance record for a long while. Playgroup is a pure party album, with all the right ingredients, and none of the tack. But, as all good party as to end sometime, Jackson throws one last bomb on the dance floor, with a little help from Shinehead, in the shape of the most amazing version of Paul Simon’s 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover. If this doesn’t reach the highest chart position soon, then there is no justice.
When everybody was getting exited by the revival of disco, Trevor Jackson was actually planning the next step. He has now delivered, and it seems like nothing can get in the way of this monster of a groove machine. This is the sound of the future.