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As we know, Franz & Shape are the Italian duo of Francesco Spazzoli and Chirs Shape who got Headman so excited, he had to sign them to his label. Their “deep dubby electronica” first came to our attention on ‘This Is The Way’ 12” and the the ‘Maximum Joy’ EP.

The 13 track album starts with ‘Channel One’, which is a perfect piece of electro acceleration. The album can be split between the vocal tracks and the instrumentals like ‘Channel One’ and the dark disco hit ‘Countach’ that has been plugged by all your top DJs like Erol Alkan, Tiga, Soulwax and Mylo. While ‘Kill The Pooh’ has a daft title, it sounds like a dubby space train and feeds my train spotting addiction.

The vocal tracks though are a bit of a disappointment with their more 80s commercial disco overtones. Only briefly do they match the excellence of a Daft Punk/DFA. ‘3AM Still Life’ and ‘Regrets & Tears’ even gets onto a Depeche Mode just to add to the variety. One track you’ve got to check is ‘God Lost My Address’, which features Chelonis R. Jones (Get Physical).

Of course ‘Maximum Joy’ sticks out but it’s still a good album for a debut and worth getting onto the instrumentals.

Hectic Mix nomination: Channel One, Contrach, Acceleration, Kill The Pooh

Reviewed: Franz & Shape — Acceleration (Relish) Cat. No. 82876851922 Released date: 29th January 2007

Tracklisting
1. Channel One
2. Tightropes feat. Perspects
3. Countach
4. God Lost My Address feat. Chelonis R Jones
5. This Is The Way feat. G.D. Luxxe
6. Regrets & Tears feat. G.D. Luxxe
7. Acceleration
8. Kill The Pooh
9. 3am Still Life feat. Mount Sims
10. Guantanamo Democratie feat. David Carretta
11. 444 Days
12. Take Off feat. G.D. Luxxe
13. Maximum Joy feat Dirk Da Davo