- Named after the town in Germany from which he originates, Malente specialises in producing feel good party tunes filled with lashings of hip hop, disco, latin grooves and overflowing with funk. Internationally he's already produced two albums - "The Spirit Of Malente" and "No Risk, No Funk", however local Australian distributor and record label, Creative Vibes has realised the damage he's caused with his singles that they've decided to take the best from both albums and compile them into "We Came To Party" for his Aussie based fans.
The vibe of the album can be best summed up in the title track. We Came To Party features a funk MC (a funk version of Fatman Scoop) who incites the crowd to shout and get busy while a dirty funk bassline, disco style horns and guitar lick provide suitable accompaniment. In the spirit of funk, the tune also features b-boy style breakdowns allowing the drummer and percussionist to get busy - similar in many ways to the breakdown used in Dee-Lite's "Groove Is In The Heart".
Overkill features the vocals of ragga MC Weedy Gonzales and the tune is a cross between grimey breakstep (on a light hearted tip) and heavily syncopated broken beats, with an electro hook and bassline laid down for good measure. The Law Is Wrong brings the album back to latin infused disco flavours (check the horn riff!) featuring a deep male vocal and a catchy bassline melody.
It's not all uptempo, Funk The Rich drops the tempo down to about 90bpms and is arranged for a live funk band featuring a horn section, triple synth combo and James Brown style vocals courtesy of Richard Kim. Pad Thai slows the tempo down even further to deep laidback lounge music featuring an ethnic vocal sample.
For those who are familiar with the Freestyler's classic tune, "Ruffneck" will instantly associate with the skanking jump up beats of Ska Wars - ragga MC shouts, Fatman Scoopish MC samples, dancehall beats and a spacey synth hook that wouldn't sound out of place in a Star Wars movie.
I don't see why Malente couldn't have named one of his earlier albums "We Came To Party" because it certainly is a most suitable title for the approach he takes to writing tunes. 8 years ago this would have been categorised under the Big Beat umbrella, however it's more than than just retro rock guitars and cheesy drum loops - this is feel good music at it's finest - what Bentley Rhythm Ace should have been making back then.