Life’s full of interesting notions like what is an akashic record? Can you have deep house covers of classic Rick James tracks? And why is Exceptional still such a secret when they are such a consistently good label?

I have no answers but I do have the forthcoming album by Plej (pronounced ‘Play’) from Gothenberg in Sweden. Plej are two brothers, Arvid and Erik Niklasson who originally got noticed when that released their own a very limited edition 12” in 2000. Since then, they’ve found at home at Exceptional and released Electronic Music From The Swedish Left Coast five years ago. OK, so these guys ain’t prolific so it’s worth the wait when they do release an album.

The thing with Home Is Where Your Heart Was it’s another one of these modern-retro themed albums; also see the excellent Quiet Village (Silent Movie) and The Herbaliser (Same As It Never Was) but with a ‘Balearic Disco’ feel.

So if you’ve just survived a weekend in the Balearic Bollywood tent at Camp Bestival, you might be feeling this one. But you don’t have to be drunk in a tent watching the sun go down/come up to love this album. Having said that, it might take a couple of listens (well it did me as I’ve been jazzin and dubsteppin’ all week) as this sounds good when you’re near the sea and the sun is out. These boys do come from the west coast after all.

So if you’re in the mood for some softer, melodic orientated approach to house music with some experimental retro, this is the album for you. The tone is set with the opening track, ‘Static Friction’ that is warm Balearic nu-jazz funk with a touch of the Rockford file theme updating the Bob James sound (for my Bob James rant, see Norman Jay MBE Presents GOOD TIMES - London. Now if you add a bit of mellow Maynard Ferguson al a Groove Armada you get ‘Safeplace’ that certainly starts safe with some class vocals from Joanna Wahlsten. With ‘Exit Anywhere’ this is the chill side of things with gentle synths, twinkling piano and acoustic guitar mellow that’s so relaxing that they really get your attention when they hit you with the ‘off-centre’ track, ‘Freaks’.

‘Freaks’ is so misplaced (a strange 80s New Order thing) that has a hook line that horribly does stick in your brain; if you hear this, don’t this what the rest of the album is like it. Even their cover version of ‘Give It To Me Baby’ (the Rick James classic) that slips into the “off-centre” shouldn’t be written off as it’s a fresh look at the punk-funk sound. And you do wonder if they are having a laugh with the titles, ‘Unbearable’ is commercial very Tongy that I know some folks would say was unbearable.

Apart from the first three tracks, the best of the lot for me are the instrumentals of the super chilled jazzy dub funk of ‘Borderline’, the cinematic disco summer groover ‘The Pollination’ and the straight ahead space funk house of ‘Exformation’.

Those with long memories will recall Nik Weston (he of Mukatsuku Records did a Radio1 Exceptional Records Showcase on the One World Show back in 2005 and indeed it was exceptional. Time for more I feel, as Home Is Where Your Heart Was is the sound of the summer. ‘Give It To Me Baby’ as Rick would say.

Review: Plej - Home Is Where Your Heart Was (Exceptional) Cat. No. EXLPCD0801 Release date: 25th August 2008
Tracklisting:
1 Static Friction (3:51)
2 Safeplace (4:47)
3 Exit Anywhere (5:35)
4 Freaks (3:01)
5 Exformation (4:22)
6 Give It To Me (4:28)
7 Borderline (4:33)
8 Unbearable (5:32)
9 The Pollination (3:50)

Links
www.plej.se
www.myspace.com/weareplej
One World Show first broadcast on 13.06.2005
Tracklistng
Tubbs - Five Day Night (Fat Freddy’s Drop rework) (Exceptional)
Cloud - Thinking of you (LIVE) (Exceptional)
Cloud - Hold On (Exceptional)
Cloud - World Keeps Turning (Exceptional)
Blu Mar Ten - Silk Road - Unreleased
Ernesto - Blame It On Your Melody (LIVE) (Exceptional)
Ernesto - Falling In To You (LIVE) - Unreleased
Ernesto - No More (LIVE) (Exceptional)
Plej - Safe Place - Unreleased
Plej - Lay of the Land (Exceptional)
Plej - Blue (Exceptional)
RYU - Never Too Soon (Exceptional)
Bluprint - Defender (LIVE) (Exceptional)
Bluprint - Sunspots (LIVE) (Exceptional)
Fat Jon - Everywhere (Exceptional)
Susumu Yokota - King of Darkness(Swell Session Remix) (Exceptional)
Cane 141 - Tobacco Auction (LIVE) - Unreleased
Cane 141 - What Bruce Haack Saw (LIVE) - Unreleased
Cane 141 - My Mother’s father’s father’s mother’s (LIVE) - Unreleased
United Future Organization - Transworld (Exceptional)
Transparent Sound - Variations of an Attitude (LIVE) (Exceptional)
Transparent Sound - Your Eyes Are Prettier - Unreleased
The Rogue Element - Calm Down (Exceptional)
Royksopp - 49 Percent (EMI)
Wednesday 17 October 2007 - An exceptional night out at The Big Chill House with Cloud, Plej, Samson and Tubbs
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_James