Review: Under the Tigerbalm alias, Rose Robinson has done a stellar job in crafting a trademark style that blends elements of boogie, nu-disco and proto-house with a variety of global musical influences - most notably African, Latin and South-East Asian sounds. On this welcome return to Razor N Tape, the London-based producer leans into the Latin inspirations, first via the colourful nu-disco breeze of 'Profunda Alma' (featuring regular vocalist Joy Tyson), and then on the 21st century synth-samba of 'Vem Ca' (featuring Jao Selva's honeyed vocals). Yuksek turns the latter into a club-ready Latin nu-disco gem, before rising stars Make a Dance deliver two rubs of 'Profunda Alma': a superb, warehouse-ready and TB-303-laden 'Acid Remix', and a percussive, spaced-out and decidedly delicious 'Tribal Dub'.
Review: Tigerbalm is the solo project from Nicola Rose Robinson, and it has impressed over the last couple of years with music on Peng and Ubiquity. Now she returns to the latter for a new single packed with great remixes. The original is 'Waiheke', a loose-limbed rhythm with bubbling drums, rich percussion and tribal vocals that will work any dance floor into a lather. The Alma Negra remix brings more funky bass, while the Bananas For Breakfast remix slows things down to a languid crawl. On the flip, the Demi Riquisimo mix is more minimal and deep and Quartz and Tiger Sunset then offer two different perspectives to close this vital EP.
Review: Rose Robinson's debut album as Tigerbalm, 2022's International Love Affair, was a genuinely glorious affair in which she wrapped indigenous instrumentation and all manner of global music influences around grooves rooted in cosmic disco, nu-disco, proto-house, Italo and Balearic beats. This palette of influences once again comes to the fore on this remixed version, which boasts some of her favourite artists rework tracks from the LP. It's all killer, no filler - as the old saying goes - with our picks including Session Victim''s percussive deep house fix of 'Cocktail D'Amore', Isaac Soto's devilishly dubbed-out interpretation of 'La Brisa', a hybrid jazz-funk/Balearic soul re-build of 'Cosmic Camel' by Mystic Jungle, and a predictably proto-house leaning vocal interpretation of 'Tokyo Business' by Andrew Meecham AKA The Emperor Machine.
Review: Rose Robinson is something of a rising star: a musician and producer inspired by the twin delights of disco and the different musical cultures she's encountered during her travels around the world. Her debut album as Tigerbalm does a brilliant job in fusing these together, with Robinson and a string of vocalists and guest musicians giddily flipping between bongo-laced, early morning dub disco ('Kete'), colourful and extra-percussive nu-disco ('Tokyo Business'), hot-stepping Afro-house ('Waiheke'), revivalist NYC proto-house (the incredible 'Cosmic Camel'), spaced-out samba-house ('Bahia Escapista'), Latin-fired, Prince style purple funk ('Riad De Lister') and her dark, rolling, atmospheric and sweat-soaked tribute to tribal house ('Cocktail D'Amour', a track inspired by the Berlin LGBTQ+ party collective of the same name).
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