"OK, ladies and gentlemen, please stay tuned because (...) we have two upcoming talents here in the music scene ..."

I have no idea where this quote comes from and it doesn't matter as we are talking about the debut album from Slope aka Daniel Paul from "Outta Space" and DJ Honesty, two Berliners who are definitely talented and versatile as they have been in the music scene since the late eighties. Influenced by Mr. John Peel and Mr. Gilles Peterson they started DJing and producing a whole lot of different styles and genres. With "M" (the brilliant title of their debut album) they're presenting a whole wide range of electronic sounds from Electro, Jazz, Soul, Broken Beats to Boogie and any other musical pigeonhole you can think of.

Daniel Pauls 12" "Outta Space" (SMA6005) and Slope first 12" "Para Los Pinchas" (SMA6006), both released on Sonar Kollektiv, already showed us the direction, those fellas are heading for. Their second 12" "Basscheck" (SMA6007) is a groover which deserves to be heard and did open doors and ears of the world outside of our little Kollektiv. The B side brought us another gifted darling of ours, a remix by Forss (album will follow in May, watch out).

"M" has got a good balance of instrumental and vocal tracks which convinces the listeners either they are currently rocking the dance floor or chilling the living room. The vocal contributions come from all over the world beginning with a downtempo soul tune "Keepingitup" featuring Jazz Singer Desney Bailey, who was also featured on last year's "In Between" longplayer by Jazzanova. Followed by "(Trust) The Universe", a broken beats cut with a vocal appearance by Mrs. Nicola Kramer (Nix), who usually collaborates with Domu. From around the corner comes Jane Hamilton, who records on Atjazz's Mantis Rec. Label as the singer of Magic Number, her vocals on "Find Our Love" take us on a journey through an uptempo soundscape and brings a feeling of harmony to those weird and confused instrumentals. Hard to describe but very easy to listen to, give it a try. Last but not least we have something we're very proud of, but won't tell you, so please check track 08 and make up your own mind. (Thank god, Mike wasn't mad !).

So please enjoy "M"'s beauty, the debut album of Slope.