Album Review: Kris Menace - Features

Though it never made mainstream ripples, Kris Menace's 2005 debut single Discopolis was a brilliantly produced and popular underground dance track. Many more popular songs since it have attempted to replicate its disco-cum-electro house grooves with very few coming close. The same can be said about Menace himself, having released a number of passable albums since his breakout single, he's never again reached that level of critical acclaim or production excellence. It's perhaps fitting then that Features, his fourth proper release, doesn't even try to do what he's done before, instead opting for a collection of 12 tracks, all very poppy, all 'featuring' another artist on vocals. And so, the title becomes clear.

Unfortunately, this only highlights Menace's less than masterful approach to modern production and composition. Musically, each song bops along with an ever simple, never changing bass-heavy beat featuring either delicate keyboard dancing or amped-up lush flourishes during song 'chorus' sections. Every artist is credited with co-writing the track they appear on, but the only feeling we have is that of Menace's.

There are pleasures to be found here for sure, the Miss Kitten-featuring Hide and groovy Romanthony track 2Nite4U are worth revisiting more than once, but these are frustratingly the exceptions rather than the rule. Even The Presets' Julian Hamilton can't save Higher Love from sounding like it belongs lost in the middle of a B-side compilation.

Previously, Menace has never really experimented with lead vocals or traditional pop song structures, opting for insular techno and house beats, which is honestly where he should belong. His previous outings haven't been stellar, but they've at least been built on more solid ideas than this.