I have a couple of issues with this release, the first is that the lifeless DIY cover-shot in no way prepares you for the slick, occasionally saccharine content therein and the second is that for all it’s obvious graces, the single featuring Felix of Basement Jaxx, ‘I’m Your Lover’ is by far the biggest draw here. And yet both are something of a non-sequitur, neither reinforcing nor diminishing the swanky smooth ‘Jazzanova’ of tracks like ‘Wishing’ and ‘Don’t Take It Personal’. Soulful, accomplished, consummate, but lacking the outrageous imagination and swagger of carnival heroes, the ‘Jaxx’.
The brainchild of Berlin-based singer/songwriter/producer Georg Levin and Steffen ‘Dixon’ Berkhahn, ‘Take It Personal’ is the fruit of years spent tinkering with primitive recording equipment and a weekly residence at some of Berlin’s prestigious nightclubs – E-Werk and The Tresor.
Bouncy, synthy and bursting with good intentions, the album is marred by some unadventurous production credits, a muddy mix and too few peaks.
Wa. But not quite Hoo.