By: Tony Wilson
In keeping with their summer dance party motif (see: Communist Dance Party, Nobody Beats the Drum), Soundlab is bringing in venerable indie dance hero, The Juan Maclean. The Juan Maclean is the stage name for John Maclean a DJ that got his start in his native Providence, RI. While crafting his unique brand of dancey grooves he became acquainted with a popular sound technician James Murphy. Years later, the same Murphy went on to create a well known NYC indie record label and fronts popular indie dance outfit LCD Soundsystem. Murphy kept in touch with Maclean and eventually recruited him to the label.
Since that time Maclean has released a number of a studio albums as well as an assortment of mixtapes. His first release, “Less Than Human”, was well received in critical circles and helped DJ Maclean gain a lot of attention. It didn’t hurt to be in tight with a founding member of the uber hip DFA clique.
Also notable in his vast assemblage of electro dance cache was the indie hit, “Happy House”, which as any good dance tune, is accustomed to having been inserted, remixed, reworked, overdubbed, re-dubbed, and spliced by numerous artists–including its innovative composer. That track first appeared on his last full LP, The Future Will Come.
His last release was for the ongoing mixtape series DJ-Kicks, which is now hitting the 30+ mark in the chain. The evolving saga tests the creativity of each talented artist to try and put their own lasting impression on the catalog.
It’ll be an intriguing show to say the least. It almost feels as if it should go without saying, buuuut…slap on them presumably well-worn boogie shoes and head on down to Soundlab this tonight about 10pm-ish.
Set the mood by checkin the beats below ….