Yse St Laurant - Beards EP (Whiskey Disco)

I friggin' love Sleazy McQueen's Whiskey Disco label. Fifteen releases in and you still don't quite know what to expect when a new release leaves the pressing plant. See the thing is, label boss McQueen (Laurin to his mum) is never afraid to try out new names and new directions. So far we've been treated to beefy disco, chunky beatdown, stoner balearica/ AOR edits , gloopy boogie and everything in between, provided by trusted names like Cole Medina and Eddie C, as well as talented new kids on the block like St. Petersburg Disco Spin and B.G. Baarregaard. Whiskey Disco stuff never gets too beardy nor too butch: it's music made to be played on a dancefloor full of smiling people.

I've had a few brief chats with Laurin over the past years, and - somewhat unsurprisingly when you have a look at the label's roster - his A&R policy can be summarized as follows: "if I like it i'll sign it, and I'll keep signing as long as the records keep breaking even". Not the most sophisticated of policies (ours doesn't amount to much more to be honest, though it does involve a bicycle), but it sure seems to be doing the trick. We waxed lyrically before about the Sunshine Jones 10" on this page and we've also been giving B.G. Baarregaard's excellent Playboy EP and a string of other WD records a mean rinsing this year.

About a week ago we got sent a cheeky little preview of the next release in the series 'The Beards EP' by Yse St Lau'rant, who also made an appearance on Whiskey Disco 11 with a hipshaking disco number, and whose first Pickpocket release we covered on here a while ago. While the EP title might sound a little frightening (there's only so much shoegazy balearic noodling one can handle) it's actually a full-on boogie fest. Four tracks on offer and they're all class as we've come to expect from the Whiskey camp. 'Freeze Frame' on the A is a chunky low slung groover with some classic rap chants (think Yo! MTV Raps) that's great to get a party started. The same goes for 'I own the boogie', also on the A, which comes with some juicy funk guitar action. Flip over for 'Warm Wind Brewing', my pick of the litter, a string laden beaut of a tune. The familiar sounding strings work a real treat (ah the agony of not being able to remember which track used the same sample!) and the tune has loads of bottom end without sounding overcooked/overcompressed. Closing track 'Here I come again' offers more gloopy boogie with badass female vocals with some proper sloppy clap action. I do realize these desciptions are rather generic (for someone who co-runs a music blog I'm actually surprisingly crap at describing music), so best check the link below for samples of the record.



Pre-order here (with 5% discount!)


A delight of a record that is sure to please the 100-105 BPM disco-house-not-house crew. With four tracks this good you'd be silly not to pick up the vinyl for a tenner by the way. Can't wait to see what comes next on Whiskey Disco. Shieeeeeeeet.