Breaking into the big time in the 90s with wife Tracey Thorn as super-duo Everything But The Girl, Ben Watt has since become a DJ extraordinaire, co-founder of the Lazy Dog club night and the Buzzin' Fly label, an imprint that has quickly become a staple in the house scene with its high quality 12" releases. So how does the label move forward? The answer lies in the fourth installment of the best-selling mix series, Buzzin' Fly Volume 4. Expanding on its deep melodic roots and moving into the era of nu-techno and electro, the album renews Buzzin' Fly's commitment to nurturing new talent - the compilation is entirely made up of home-grown tracks, the majority of which have yet to see the light of day with several from artists never heard of before. Every track is either on Buzzin' Fly or its new sister imprint, Strange Feeling.
The drive and propulsion of Watt's journey is a master-class in modern harmonic mixing where tracks glide seamlessly in and out of each other, overlapping in long extended crossfades. Of the artists involved, debutants Kimouts from Moscow and St Petersberg's BarBQ underline the growing importance of Eastern Europe in the modern scene with their warm takes on deep techno and disco. Deep house cult figures Pedro Madeira (PM Project) and Martin Brodin (Deeplay) deliver up super-fresh future-facing tracks while ultra-hip Parisian Pulp and Rex resident Mlle Caro and Franck Garcia cook up a predestined classic of instrumental tech-pop. Buzzin' Fly dark cornerstones Manoo and Francois A return with the searing "Magnetic." Head honcho Ben Watt caps it off with a fresh unreleased slice of modern techno-house in "Just A Blip," and his acclaimed electric-disco re-work of "Silver Ponds" by Strange Feeling's debut signing, the alt-pop Danish band Figurines. Buzzin' Fly Volume 4 is a bracingly fresh collection that hums sweet melodies and buzzes with sonic vibrance.
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