DJ Alex Corton – Vinyl Reviews

Good Looking Records

Second Vision – The Italian Job / Running

1999

The year moves into 1999 to begin another first class trip through Good Looking Records’ extensive weight in the world of drum and bass. I hope all had a good weekend and the music reached those areas of your life that nothing else quite can? I have just had a week away with the family and connected with experiences outside of music for a much needed break. Time to clock in again now, and hit those notes. 

    For our artist today, we have one of the most prolific and inspiring music writers and remixers of the scene. Way before he had this release on Good Looking, he had served up some of the biggest tunes ever made on a barrage of first class labels; Absolute, Reinforced, Moving Shadow & Labello Blanco had all shown the pedigree of Gavin Chueng’s knack for the anthemic, showcasing the raw, killler dancefloor bites. It was now time for the atmospherics to receive his masterful way of redesigning the emotional roads within your head.  

   The Eastern Sun rises to the mists of the Wasen’s & Amibunes within the peace and stillness of the harbors tales and woes. When the main breaks lift off the anchors we pick up speed and raise the sails for this unknown drift into the blank horizon ahead. The bass is a thing of utter superiority in this track, as it really fills every patch of your mind with this infectious hum. It compacts everything together so elegantly and makes you look up from your navigational equipment to plot that reassigned course across the rapid currents, triggered by the unstable tectonic plates, submerged miles below the surface. ‘The Italian Job’ is a piece of gold from Gavin, (although I seemed to venture geographically further East for my personally scribed visual interpretation), and it opened up a vast number of releases from him, on GLR, LGR and across the Cookin’ and final Earth compilation. This release I feel is hidden a fair bit when it comes to Good Looking, which is a sacrilege as it’s a real slammer that picks up the crowds every time. 

   ‘Runnin’ on the other side is more proof that Gavin turns the heat up by just walking into the studio. This is a beat work out that takes the fucking piss to be honest, as it’s so eclectic and rhythmically diverse that you don’t even notice the gradual building of all the essentials around it. By the time the bass arrives you’ve already gathered enough steam to plough through the rolling mountain ranges and set auto pilot for the duration. It’s funky, soulful and spills the bath of groove out onto the floor for everyone to absorb. Tracks like this deserve a reload and thrown into a shit load more mixes. Come on folks, put it into some mixes (or I might do soon). Gavin hit the GLR label running hard. That’s no surprise though as he’d pretty much sown up such a legendary status by 1999, it was only a matter of time until GLR pushed him a deal to canvas his artistry.

   Lots more from Gav coming up later in the label. Second Vision was his one off though under that name (I’m sure due to being signed as Nookie on other labels until 2000). Just go and rinse both sides and you’ll be kicking yourself you’ve not been rotating this one a lot, lot more. 

   Big props as always, Gav!