Last Friday marked the first release from DJ Flight’s early 2000s label, Play:Musik in nearly 15 years. In those years, Flight has been far from inactive, establishing the now famous EQ50 cooperative, which supports women in the music industry, releasing her own music and playing gigs, including curating her own ‘Black Herstory’ night with Deep Medi music at Fabric to match the series of posts she did with EQ50. Incidentally, Flight and her team are not working on a documentary around the subject. As a broadcaster and podcaster, Flight’s also grown her original ‘The Next Chapter’ radio series, which began in 2002, into an award-winning podcasting and radio production career, including winning honours from the British Podcast Awards in 2022 for her Windrush Stories series.
Evidently all of that wasn’t enough on the roster for Flight, so with Geordie jungle artist Nectax’s new EP, Body Talk, Play:Musik is back up and running. With previous releases scrubbed clean (remastered back catalogue will be re-released) and a new logo, Play:Musik teased the digital release of Body Talk with a limited vinyl test press on 4th July, which has already sold out. The EP released on digital platforms last Friday, 26th July.
As new-gen jungle, Nectax seems to be on a mission to expand the current perception of our patron genre with Body Talk. Whilst the opening title track leans toward classic, ameny hardcore vibes, it’s all over the board from there. Second track ‘Twin Turbo’ has a freestyle, footwork vibe that almost gets into techno territory, were it not for the highly syncopated snares and kicks.
‘No Such Luck’ directly follows, with a more modern and experimental bent. The rolling sub bass hearkens back to the heady days of intelligent darkstep, whilst the light and airy snares almost sort of comprise the synth line. Said snares harmonise with the haunting vocal and blippy highs are sparse and minimal. “Sentinel Runner” closes out the EP and continues the good bass work of its predecessor but it takes up a more old school and freestyle edge, tying the EP together and bringing it full circle. These are the sort of tracks one would love to hear at a Rupture gig or similar, and it’s likely one will.
It’s easy to see why Flight chose Body Talk as the first release on this new iteration of Play:Musik. Nectax has done a beautiful job melding past and present sounds into something any head can enjoy. Old school snare lovers will love the nostalgia, where newer fans will get both a history lesson and modern elements like rolling bass and 4×4 interest points. A solid release for the end of summer and beyond, and an excellent portent of what’s to come on Flight’s imprint.
Body Talk is out now and can be purchased on Play:Musik’s Bandcamp or Beatport and streamed on Spotify.