The A1 People have been releasing music in the finest electro tradition since 1998, Matt Early's departure to Dub Marines finds guitarist Tom Crook being promoted to desk duties together with original A1 Person Simeon Bowring on this The Yellow Album. The persistent bleeps of single "Casio Rock" sets the agenda for the album, loosing much of the funkadelic aspirations of 2001's Visit EP, in favour of a return to the sweaty dancefloors of the capital with which they first made their mark. As such, body-popping synths are the dominating force here, the aforementioned track lifting its beats from a preset on the retro Casio VL tone and its vocal from a vocoder but shunting this archaic machinery into the next century through bolting on some screaming acidics and booty shaking basslines. "Crazy Electro Music," "Detroit Style" and "Rhythm Machine" all speak for themselves--all thumping 909 kicks and wobbly low end but the album does offer some deviation with "The Freak" and "The Reason" offering a charming set of more maudlin electronica. The latter being the pick of the two with twinkling melodies contrasted with bubblesome back-end and a vocal that captures the pub philosophy of a punch-drunk paranoid android. --Kingsley Marshall
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