Yung Bae brings disco back to the dancefloor with B4E

Yung Bae, despite his wonderfully ridiculous name, has produced some great music on his fourth release B4E, a disco

fuelled dance album. Los Angeles is where Bae is based, but his work is so good that he’ll probably be going international. Yung Bae already has a following in South Korea and Japan, thanks to the influences of Japanese pop-culture in some of his earlier work (and obviously due to the fact that his music is wicked too). This latest record from Mr. Bae goes in a slightly different direction to his previous work, incorporating more upbeat funk samples and disco numbers, this is by far his most fun album to date.

With B4E, the musician and mixer has made an album that is consistently good, it’s just banger after banger. The whole album feels like something everyone could be listening to over summer, it would go hand in hand with the sun and a cold bev. B4E kicks things off with an old school radio intro that goes straight into some horns, which immediately sound like they could be from one of The Jacksons' or Earth, Wind, & Fire’s tracks. This nostalgic familiarity is a common theme with the music throughout B4E, every song feels recognisable but new. Yung Bae is able to extract key elements of songs, re-structuring and elaborating on the sounds and instruments to create tracks that often stand separate to their originals; these tunes are less remixes and more redesigns.

There are some great samples, such as in standout track ‘This Is It’ which was originally Dan Hartman, but Yung Bae puts his own stamp on them, making them much bigger sounding tracks that would be awesome to hear at clubs and festivals. Another favourite from the album is ‘Suede’, with its 80s electro-funk style (similar to Tuxedo) this nu-disco track goes straight in with some tasty synths and horns that are hard to resist. ‘I Know’ has a similar sound to Mtbrd’s work, with its beats style and funky hip-hop instrumentals, and ‘Magic’ is a cool take on Teena Marie’s original track. By using these various samples, like ‘Body Rap’ by Wynd Chymes and ‘Happy Face’ by Con Funk Shun, Yung Bae transforms them into modern dance tracks and opens the floodgates for people to explore music they may not have considered. Yung Bae is re-introducing the genre of disco to a new audience, following trends both in the charts and outside of it that will appeal to the masses.

B4E is so upbeat and a real mood changer, there’s also some guest stints from Flamingosis and Alexander Lewis on the final number, a cool collaboration that shows Yung Bae’s potential to remix and re-edit his way into the commercial realm. Hopefully the man will get the opportunity to work on tracks with some of his more successful peers, because Yung Bae’s ability to bash out most of these tunes in under 40 minutes merely hints at how much more he has to offer; this is an artist to keep your eye on.