Fin
Balearic beat-based house music evolved in the mid-\'80s before becoming the staple of beach raves in Ibiza and European dance clubs during the early \'90s. With his debut album, *Fin*, Barcelona\'s John Talabot builds on these bygone foundations. While there are colorful hints of nostalgia throughout, Talabot never really backpedals. More swampy than tropical, “Depak Ine” opens *Fin* with a murky ambience of croaking frogs and marshland crickets chirping, as synth tones inspired by Andy Fletcher and pulsing beats slowly seep into the mix. This flourishes into a gothic disco with a choir of haunting vocal samples. Madrid’s Pionel cameos as coproducer in the following “Destiny.” Similarly eerie tones are contrasted by Caribbean-tinged instruments and melancholy singing that would sound right at home on a Cabaret Voltaire recording. Talabot’s penchant for sonic pointillism surfaces in “When the Past Was Present,” a more unapologetically sentimental glimpse at a time when jabbing synths and handclaps flourished on the floor.
In the past two years, John Talabot has become an exemplar of a new breed of producers working at the intersection of deep house, disco, and indie pop. On his debut, the Spanish producer builds upon his distinctive sound-- bursting with color, nostalgic but never retro, easy-going yet slightly unhinged-- without repeating himself.
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Barcelona house producer John Talabot has a knack for capturing the very specific kind of bliss associated with dancing on Mediterranean beaches at the height of summer.
[xrr rating=4.25/5]“Tropical” is a frequently bandied-about descriptor of John Talabot’s work.
Pop inflection is hardly a new direction for Barcelona native John Talabot. After stirring things up with 2009 single "Sunshine" off his own Havern Disc imprint - his then obfuscated calling card chalk full of glowing krautrock, R&B, African, and disco influences - he released his Families EP on electro-leaning indie label, Young Turks, which
John Talabot - Fin review: Unashamedly, and almost unassumingly, amazing - a breathless wonder