Jana Rush - Painful Enlightenment 2LP

Gotta say it has felt pretty, pretty good to catch up on a slew of more recent releases from the ever-reliable, long running electronic inprint, Planet Mu. And it's especially good to reconnect with that Chicago Juke/Ghetto House/Footwork lineage via Jana Rush's Painful Enlightenment.

While Rush says this isn't a Footwork record, and that "It's more like dark experimental listening music, an opportunity to be myself without judgment", I've always seen Footwork as a sound that's open to a wide spectrum of moods and degrees of musicality/abstractness.

Obviously Jana's more of an authority than me (duh), but what I'm trying to say is that this record will appeal to those who've had a damn good time experiencing RP Boo, Jlin, Traxman, DJ Rashad etc divorced from the dance tradition... other than awkwardly cutting a few shapes in front of the home stereo.

An album that's bombastic, bold and fun but also particularly tense, sparse and rough at points, all in the best possible way!

- Nic (Repressed Records)