MAYA JANE COLES レコード& CD

Review: It's been almost five years since Maya Jane Coles last released an album under her given name (though there was one as Noctural Sunshine three years ago), so Night Creature is long overdue. In keeping with her previous approach to albums, the sound of the set is not as sharply peak time focused as her EPs, with a greater sense of immersive atmospherics, songs aplenty, a wider palette of electronic sounds and a decent number of slower, more ethereal instrumentals included to offer listeners a little breathing space. As a result, Night Creature is arguably her most well-rounded set yet, which is an impressive achievement considering how much work she put into it (Coles wrote, produced, engineered and mixed it all).

Review: Four years have passed since Maya Jane Coles' last full-length excursion (2015's set as Nocturnal Sunshine not included), so it's perhaps unsurprising that Take Flight is something of a long and undulating epic. Featuring 24 tracks stretched across two CDs and a string of eager collaborators (Chelou, Rachel Butt of GAPS fame and We Fell To Earth singer Wendy Rae Fowler being arguably the best known), Take Flight is little less than an extended showcase for the DJ/producer's particular bland of shuffling, tactile tech-house, tweaked to suit the demands of radio and home listeners. One reviewer recently described it "love letter to dance music", and Coles' many fans will no doubt agree.

Review: Last time Maya Jane Coles dropped an album, her digital-only eponymous debut on 1Trax back in 2010, she was still on the up. Now, she is firmly established as something of a star; not only as a DJ, but as a producer in demand. Comfort, her second set, is something of a slow-burn special. As well as tracks that conform to her tech-tinged, atmospheric deep house blueprint, it also features a number of woozy, shuffling, downtempo pop songs. It's these, such as the impressive "Come Home" and "Comfort", which fully display her development as a producer and songwriter, placing her soothing vocals right at the centre of the action.

Review: Given her current popularity, it's no surprise to see all-conquering house hero Maya Jane Coles mixing the latest instalment of !K7's long-running DJ Kicks series. The diminutive DJ/producer is in fine form, too, mixing up typically atmospheric house cuts and clandestine deepness with saucer-eyed late night faves and forgotten B-sides (see Bozzwell's surprisingly emotional "In My Cocoon"). As a mix it's as deep, melodic and groovy as you'd expect, with a strong vocal theme running throughout. As it progresses, it tiptoes further into bleary-eyed darkroom territory, via stand-out cuts from Marcel Dettmann, Caribou (his thrilling remix of Virgo Four), Gerry Read and T Williams.