Different Frequencies - Botanic Dreams

Rob Watson has shaken many a dancefloor with his work as producer The Magic Fly, and here he teams up with seasoned club vocalist Benjamin McCourt for a collaborative venture in festival friendly, dance-pop. And while opening with a David Icke spoken word sample is a risky move in anyone's book, Botanic Dreams thankfully leaves any reptilian conspiracy theories at the door, and instead focuses on cultivating a rounded collection of block rocking beats.

The group work best delivering boisterous party tunes, such as the epic, house-hop workout Different Frequencies (Group Hug) or the uptempo skank of What The Fup?, both of which wouldn't sound out of place in a party mix by DJ Vadim. But elsewhere their attempts fall flat: the anti-inoculating diatribe of Vaccination sounds ridiculously juvenille, while Flicking Switches is an ill-considered pop gambit which should never have been made. A hit and miss affair, which mostly misses. [Martin Skivington]