JOE BATAAN レコード& CD

Review: This 2024 edition marks the return of Joe Bataan, via the same track that made his name in 2004. Vampi Soul first welcomed the Latin Soul king to the label two decades back, facilitating the release of his 2005 album Call My Name. The pre-release singles for the album were 'Chick-A-Boom' and 'Cycles Of You', packed onto a single 7"; these quickly became DJs' favourites and have thus since remained long out of print. As it was twenty years ago, 'Chick-A-Boom' is a simultaneously upbeat but ghostly track, with Bataan's vocals quadrupling up in a wall of sound while providing the vibe equivalent of a Jackie Chan flick. 'Call My Name', meanwhile, goes heavy on the clavichord and synth whistle, as Bataan revels in a funereal theme, dancing, thundersticking into the great beyond.

Review: Vampisoul mainstay Joe Bataan comes through once again this year for a two-track G-funk-whistling pair of soul bits, reissuing the song 'Call My Name', which cemented the crooner's name way back in 2004. A funereal theme overarches the otherwise laid-back and casually-mooded song: "we are gathered here today to remember the departed and have a final say". It's this tension between joyous and lamentatory that nails the Latin Soul artist's overall vision and here you have the potential to whack it on the 'tables once more.