Andy Vaz

Straight Vacationing Andy Vaz

Andy Vaz’s Straight Vacationing, his first full-length artist album, since the 2006 release of Repetitive Moments Last Forever…, registers as less a straight-up collection of dance-floor burners and more of a variety pack that mixes club tracks and full-fledged house songs. Listeners hungry for just ordinary 4/4 throw-downs will not entirely get their share of those, but they’ll also get a whole lot more on this dynamic and well-rounded set of eight album tracks and that is exploring House Music not just as a simple one way street, but give you a very personal view of the music we call House. Straight Vacationing dives into the genre in all it’s rich variety: From deep melodic, early Chicago influenced Acid House, Jacking-Jedi Mind Tricks to Disco-type grooves and last but not least excursions into Bizzaro World, with a vaz typical almost psychedelic experimental-edged Sound, it’s all there. The album perks up the moment the first track, “Detroit In Me,” appears and when its acidy bass line percolates so determinedly alongside a female vocal motif ("I just need to put a little Detroit in Me), leaving little doubt as to the style in question, but Vaz polishes the track’s Detroit surfaces to a mirror-like sheen. A little bit similar to what Maceo Parker might sound like soloing over a funky Detroit-styled base, saxophonist Andreas Pasternack spreads his creamy playing all over “Stubnitz” and in so doing bolsters the album’s already soulful character. The album’s poppiest moment arrives in “Just Another Round,” whose hooks Vaz powers with a lead bass line and sweetens with a chirping female vocal. The funky-as-hell bass playing and the music’s cold sweat, not to mention the honk of Pasternack’s sax, might remind listeners of a certain age of the J. B.’s, James Brown’s ’70s band. On the experimental tip there’s “Fukuoka Liquid,” a bubbly, acid-techno shape-shifter featuring a hammering groove overlaid with synth smears, and “Worlds Collide,” an exercise in jacking acid