Ben Watt & Jay Hannan - Lazy Dog (CD)

All Music Guide

Straight out of west London, Ben Watt and co-conspirator Jay Hannan collect up two disc's worth of the ultra-smooth deep house that propels their well-attended ~Lazy Dog club evenings. Watt, who has sporadically DJed since the mid-'90s as a supplement to his day job as the male half of Everything but the Girl, takes disc one from the bumpin' futurism of Julian Jabre's "That Day" to the disco rave-up of Leee John's "Mighty Power of Love" (heavy breathing included). Watt's disc also includes "Tracey in My Room" (a fusion of EBTG's "Wrong" and Soul Vision's "Come Into My Room"), which may be the highlight of the entire release. Hannan, a jock from London's Kiss-FM stable who helped Watt establish the ~Lazy Dog nights two years ago in a Notting Hill basement, leans more heavily towards the diva-esque side of the spectrum on his disc. Hannan, who opens with the fairly kickin' "Another World" by Big Sexy unfortunately slips into pseudo-Salsoul Orchestra territory with Negrocan's "Cada Vez," ...before completely losing the plot with the admittedly traditional but mostly wretched disco of David Bendeth's "Feel the Real." Although things may reek of polyester at this point, a significant recovery is made with the inclusion of Halo Varga's "Future" While it's easy to suppose that DJ Hannan is more in touch with what true house devotees really want to boogie to, he may be somewhat outclassed here by his compatriot's selections. On balance, however, both discs make up a set worthy of any long-distance clubber's collection. - JoE Silva, All Music Guide Read more Less