Play Records is part of a small group of determined partiers who are trying to keep the after-hours warehouse vibe alive. The assorted acoustic instruments associated with a different era of dance music vibes, saxes, congas, trumpets, Rhodes and bass pop up in the Play catalogue as part of the arrangement, not a filtered loop made for DJ's to tweak at their leisure. Mixed by Toronto-based DJ Peace Harvest, this is the second in a series of deep, jazzy house mix CDs that Play has put out, and while there's a lot of press given to Toronto's house scene, it doesn't hurt to further promote local independent artists.

Floorplay 2 features a couple of tracks from beyond our shores, namely Lacarno + Burns, Sweet Abraham and Sinan, but for the most part it is Toronto producers representing here, including advance tracks from the Pan Con Queso album set to drop on Play later this spring.

I have been sitting on this review for a while, primarily because I keep the CD at work, where it acts as a nice afternoon pick-me-up that goes around and around in a continuous-play mobius loop. It's probably great in a club with the thundering bass, tootling trumpets, burning keys, divas saaaaangin' like their lungs are on fire, smooth mixing and banging tunes. At work, though, on tinny computer speakers, it's the post-rave equivalent of ambient music. Seriously, this is wallpaper for people who listen to house music on the regular. It's not a diss to Peace Harvest, Play, or any of the artists/producers, but a jazzy deep house mix CD does not make for serious listening more than once. This is music to do stuff to not something to sit down and listen to. Unless you've got way better drugs than I do.

RECOMMENDED TRACKS: it's all one track really.

By Andrew Masuda
Mar 29, 2002