Dark Arts - You A Naughty Gurl

Hear The Track Here

You may remember me reviewing Dark Arts' Music Down, Bass Up (October 2009) and mentioning that although the name is different we know the musician underneath the bonnet, going under the name of Solidsounds and I have reviewed a fair amount of those tracks. So, couple of things to bear in mind; I'm not much of a fan of the whole dance thing and in particular electronic forms of dance music. This is an area Solidsounds worked and and probably suffered because of it, although I doubt that was the reason for the name change. On Music Down, Bass Up there was a definite tightening up of the sound heard previously and it's actually a very listenable piece of said dance electronica, enough for me to give it a grudging recommended when I reviewed it and considering my dislike of the genre, I think Shane Simpson (aka Dark Arts) got off lightly ;)

Of course, he won't think that.

See, right from the getgo You A Naughty Gurl (not sure if that's patois or English skule edukashun) proudly pronounces its electronic house credentials and those are words sent to torment me. There again, this is the aural philistine who forever wondered what could possibly be happy about house. Admittedly, I was back in the day when it was fresh and clean smelling but the current (modern) version of it is a flabby pale imitation of the spirit that moved the house movement. For my money, the genre is full of people who think that the only thing that really matters is the four to the floor, bolstered by a couple of out of tune piano and/or horn samples. Not, fortunately, a charge that can be levelled at Dark Arts either for Music Down, Bass Up or You A Naughty Gurl.

If I was forced to listen to dance music (which is the only way it would happen anyway, lets face it) then it would have to be something at least as inventive as Dark Arts is with this outing. What a lot of modern dance electronica seems to have forgotten - especially when its called House - is that the original sound was very, very subtle, sophisticated and ahead of the curve. It just happened to be set to a dance beat. Dark Arts manages to keep enough of the original style and elan of the genre, with an excellent production standard that even I can forgive him for the genre he so obviously has a deep love for.

Recommended Dance electronica.