The fastest tempo on 'Twenty One' sits in its very first cut: 'Next To Me' opens at 126 BPM and nothing that follows ever tops it. The real anomaly arrives in third position, when 'Quiere Party' —with Tokischa and Provi— drops all the way down to 93 BPM, a mid-tempo swerve that breaks the record's rhythmic corridor before it has even settled. Once past that deliberate dip, the remaining thirteen tracks lock into a 120-125 band and never leave it.
Inside that plateau, three altitudes organize the listen:
- The 120 floor: 'Playboy', 'Ron Y Coco', 'Make Me Go', 'Habibi' and 'Not For Nothing', the most crowded block and the one carrying the groove.
- The 122-124 cruise: from 'Champagne' to 'Stay Sexy' and 'My Love', where the album spends most of its time.
- The 125-126 peaks: 'Next To Me' at the opening, 'Shine' with David Guetta and French Montana, and 'Movin' To The Sun' with Ultra Nate, which is also the longest cut (5:53).
Twenty-one years to reach 126
The title is no accident: this is Hugel's debut album, named for the 21 years separating the producer from his first vinyl mix, recorded in his bedroom in Marseille, as Beatportal recounts. Today he heads Make The Girls Dance Records, the label behind all 16 cuts with a residency at Hi Ibiza, and 'Movin' To The Sun' had already led the way as a single back in May. "I put everything I had into it," he sums up.
In the booth, the architecture does the work: almost any two cuts chain without touching the pitch fader, and the 125-123-123 close —'Body Drop', the shortest of the lot alongside Scott Storch and Big Sean, then '150 Bands'— brings the energy down without braking it. The one demanding detour is still 'Quiere Party': either double the tempo or take it as the breather Hugel placed exactly where no one expected it.
Sources: Beatportal · Wikipedia
