IN THE arena of house music, perhaps never were artists more succinctly and appropriately named: Masters at Work. Masters at work indeed.
The creatives behind such generation-defining floor-fillers as Voices’ “Voices In My Mind”, the Latin percussive skip of KenLou’s “Bangin’ Early Theme” and the summer shine of MAW feat. Patti Austin’s “Like A Butterfly (You Send Me)” have revisited the MAW Records catalogue, dusted it down, given it some remastering TLC and for the first time made the whole catalogue available digitally – that’s available across streaming platforms right now.
And excitingly for Masters at Work completists, a clutch of alternate mixes and version, heretofore unreleased, have also been made available; for, they say, “those with keen enough eyes and ears to unearth them”.
Not only that, they’ve released a new single, the cool, syndrum-punctuated shuffle of “Mattel”; we’ve embedded that particular groove for you herein. It’s their first drop in more than 20 years.
Named after an early drum machine which is a particular favourite, the Mattel Synsonic, it’s a stripped back groove, that early digital rhythm popping crisply and garlanded with live percussion from Kenny Dope; Louie Vega takes care of that bass chatter and other irresistible vamps for nearly eight minutes of elegant limb-shakin’.
“Mattel” marks the start of a run of new material from Masters At Work, with further releases lined up throughout 2021 and into next year.
