Album Review: KYM Mazelle 'The Pleasure’s All Mine

The word legend gets thrown around a lot these days and I for one can't think of a better excuse to use it again than for 'first lady of house' - Kym Mazelle.

Arguably the most highly respected female vocalist in the history of house music - Kym seemed predestined for divadom from an early age. As a child she played and sang with The Jacksons at her home in Gary, Indiana; then later, while studying Opera in Chicago, a job with DJ International led her to hook up with Marshall Jefferson.

Several of her records bubbled under stateside but many will merely know her for her best known hit, a cover of Candi Station’s 'Young Hearts Run Free,' which appeared on the soundtrack to the modern day remake of William Shakespeare’s 'Romeo and Juliet.'

On this occasion Kym has teamed up with Italian house pioneer Roberta Intrallazzi, and DJing partner Luca Provera. Roberta was responsible for most of the house (or ‘handbag' as it was called round our way) coming out of Italy in the mid-90s. You may also have caught Roberta and Luca spinning as 'The Cube Guys' while on your jollies in Ibiza last season. What the trio have given us here is a remixed collection of some of dance music's best loved tunes. With Kym naturally on vocals and Rob and Luca at the controls, there seems to be a 'we make electro and nothing else' policy.

Fans of Kym will no doubt be right on this, but frankly I wouldn’t be surprised if they were not more than a little disappointed with the end product. Trying to remix seminal house tunes such as 'Tears' is a bold statement in itself, and these lads just haven’t cut the mustard. You've got records like Jason Seales 'Diamond Life',' Steve Hurley's 'Love Will Be Done' and Armand Van Helden’s 'You Don't Know Me' amongst many other heavyweight classics, but none of the covers here really do them justice. Each track is made with an electro feel, and you might be saying 'well I like electro,' but even die-hard electro fans would have to agree that this is more pussy than cat.

The relentless squiggly noises get progressively boring, and I have to wonder why the production team couldn’t have been a tad more inventive with the style in which they remix. As a fan of Kym, I am really disappointed with this. Sadly, she has been reduced to a mere diamond amongst the rough, because these sounds really detract from her incredible vocal talents. Perhaps instead of producing a compilation of covers, they would have been better starting from scratch and writing some new material. The fact that you know just how good the original songs are simply makes listening to this album even harder.

Words: Luke Hush

Kym Mazelle 'The Pleasure’s All Mine' will be out on March 7 on Stefano Cecchi Records.