Berlin's Get Physical has always been one of the
most overtly pop-oriented of this decade's big dance-music imprints, and the
seventh volume of its DJ-mix series is selected by Matthew Dear, who's best
known for the vocal-driven work he releases under his own name. But Dear is
also known for his abstract instrumental work, and that's the guiding principle
behind the 20-track mix Body Language Vol. 7, which doesn't feature a
prominent vocal until halfway through. An odd one it is, too: the gurgled croon
of Mlle Caro and Franck Garcia's "Dead Souls (Radio Slave Long Distance Kiss
Mix)" sounds as dreamy and detached as the rest of the collection. Sometimes
that just means it pumps away in a relatively straightforward manner, as with
SoulPhiction's "Traffic Lights." But the peaks are the more overly psychedelic
likes of I:Cube's "GTNUP," in which vocal shrapnel flits by like a surreal
cartoon, and DJ Koze's "Zou Zou," whose pan-pot tune and gurgling timbres are
so hazed-out that they make Panda Bear's Person Pitch sound like the Ramones.