True story, I once asked Eli Escobar what his “real” last name was. And yes, just like the man himself, too cool to be true. When Eli asked us to press up his latest album, we jumped at the chance (the last one we did together was Escobar Edits back in 2010). When I first heard Last Summer in its entirety, it reminded me of old NYC dance record stores of the past like Vinylmania and 8 Ball Records. It wouldn’t be uncommon for the DJs behind the counter to play a seemingly random flow of records from deep house to hard techno into some Kenny Dope hip-hop break. You could spend an hour digging through the similarly random promos on the floor, there wasn’t any rhyme or reason to how they were arranged. Last Summer is like listening to those promos all day picking 11 of the best tracks. Yeah, if the storefront was open right now, this is the type of record all the ol’head DJs would come through to pick up. RIP BLU JEMZ.

• 180g black double vinyl pressing
• music label: Night People 2020
• also available: Last Summer – 180g Turntable Lab Exclusive Colored Vinyl

reviewed by the mgmnt 08/2020