Reviews
March: 18 albums you need to hear this month
Daniel Avery, Moby, D Double E and more
Big Miz 'Build/Destroy' (Dixon Avenue Basement Jams)
Few UK labels have done as much recently to take house back to basics as Glasgow-based imprint Dixon Avenue Basement Jams. Not prog, not tech, not minimal, not deep, not neo, not lo-fi, just house. And label stalwart (and fellow Glaswegian) Big Miz does exactly the same. On three EPs and now this LP, he doesn’t waver: drum machines knock out the four-to-the-floor, basslines bump, bare-bones synth riffs and samples loop, bish bosh bash, job’s a goodun. Yet every time it’s different, and every time it’s fresh. Synth-pop, Italo-disco, rap, African music and p-funk are all absorbed into the Chicago template, but never to the detriment of it being just pure, straight-up, rock-solid house. And really, what more do you need? Joe Muggs
8/10
