Super review by Cal Gibson, of The Secret Soul Society and Scruffy Soul Recordings.

France’s Favorite Recordings are a label with a broad brush approach to the dance, casting their net far and wide in an effort to reflect the various facets of leftfield funk and soul. Crucially, their quality control is consistently strong: recent highlights might include Mato‘s dubbed-out jazztronics, Aldorande‘s criminally overlooked fusionistic funk, Alan Shearer‘s wonky library feels and Voilaaa’s global beat business – all killer, no filler.

Magic Source slot right into this ethos of wide-ranging goodness, with their all live disco kicks sounding super-sweet in a variety of dancefloor settings. This is organically-grown adult disco for the Mancuso set: grooves chiselled out from the studio floor, musicians eyeballing each other over the tape deck, phasers set to stun. Earthy, cheese-free, chunky, and funkier than a shedful of mosquitoes’ tweeters – a low-key delight from start to finish.

There’s eight cuts, none of which outstay their welcome. Superglider beams down on a solidly-sprung axis of funk, low-riding and high-fiving its way onto the floor. Its squelchy, stretchy fun – mind and body enmeshed in the art of rhythm, a sweetass sound-bed on which to enact our frugging fantasies. There’s a sense of urgency, of being in the moment: nothing stale or over-contextualised here: just good time boogie thrills for the dancers. Escapism walking tall.

Their frankly brilliant Genius Of Love cover gets another outing, after it came out as a single last year: the sound of New York sweetened up, slinked out and skanked forward – one of last year’s essential party-starting moments for sure. The retro possibilities re-fitted for our un-gilded age, a hedonistic glance backwards to a past that always slips away from us, whispering goodbyes with a tear in its eye and a spring in its step. Crafted beautifully, performed with precision: a knock-out blow.

Dreaming Of You keeps the needle in the groove: beatdown bionics for the funky bassline lovers. Mighty Mocambos‘ Bjorn Wagner is the man behind Magic Source, and he certainly knows his way around the desk: there’s a lightness of touch at play, an in-depth down-homie knowledge of the beat that comes from years of practice. Magic Source are tight, locked-down and ready to rumble. Let’s hope they’re planning some live shows: this shit could go off.

Space Of Mind plays us out and you’re smiling at the end: Voyage Spectral is a highly accomplished piece of work that’s landing just at the right time as we head into the warmer months. It’s an album that’s going to be working its way into many sets from warm-ups to late night hoedowns: there’s something for all the disco family in here. Magical indeed: another properly decent offering from the Favorite crew. Consider my chapeau to be firmly tipped.

Magic Source’s Voyage Spectral can be ordered directly from Favorite Recordings.