House

It came as a surprise. Stumbled over “All I Want” being played somewhere. Made me listen and wonder. What could that be? Sure, Deep House, categorization isn’t really difficult. And yet. So much of the music in my Deep House section is very much not like this. It sounded more like it ended up in this category unintentionally.

Already halfway through side one of this album I started looking at just how I view and experience the genre. House. Sometimes I find it very enjoyable, and sometimes deeply cringeworthy. My guess is that there are about a thousand pieces of vinyl in my collection that carry this label. How much of that do I really like? How much of it do I like enough to play for others?

Maybe a third of it if I look at it with a kind eye. A few weeks ago I put a big stack of vinyl up for sale on Discogs. Stuff I don’t play anymore. A lot of Deep House among it. I didn’t clear out the whole Guidance stack, but most of it. And I discovered a half dozen Franck Roger 12″es. Yeah, I know. I wonder if anyone wants them.

But there’s a kind of House that always gets me. The other side of Deep House, where “deep” is not just a question of style, but rather a matter of attitude. When smoothly rolling House meets brain, meets art, meets musicianship, where the depth of the music meets the broadness of minds. When House is not an end in itself but a method of transport. Not a form of expression but a foundational layer of expression.

It’s something that can happen anywhere. It happened when Bugge Wesseltoft rode this way on “Moving”. It’s what keeps me carrying around obscure 12″es by little known people like Jeff Sharel. It’s why I keep completing the Kuniyuki Takahashi section of my collection.

So, in a way I was bound to stumble over Michael Green’s work at some point. That he’s on Ghostly International might have led to a bit of delay – I wouldn’t have expected them to have someone among their artists that does House. An additional thumb raised for that. Until then, the only Ghostly artists on my shelves were Dabrye, Loscil and Gold Panda. Telling, in a way.

“Insides” must have been created with a lot of care and thoughtfulness. It sounds as if every aspect of it must have gone through careful consideration. Yet, as much as this feels like a very deliberate effort, it never lacks lightness, never feels cramped or cluttered. On the contrary, there’s always enough air to breathe.

Things never get complicated, and they never get dull. Like “All I Want”, the track that tickled my curiosity. There is nothing overly fancy about the rhythmic foundation, proving that you don’t need to create something completely new if you know how to make things sound classy. You might even underestimate the track for its first three or four minutes. It just builds without any hurry whatsoever, until you notice that the pianoesque keys have already taken you to the dancefloor. Oops.

Ah, and then… the title track. For a second, there’s a little Theo Parrish in the air, you just gotta love the way this piece starts right in. That one synth loop and the kick, that’s all you need, and starting from there, Green could have done whatever he wants, hard to mess it up. His choice here is to contrast the tight foundation with big synth horns for the mid-section of the track. Otherwise he keeps it nicely simple.

Sometimes the album has a slightly 90s or even 80s touch. The first minutes of “Not A Word” sound like originating in a very strange Bermuda triangle between a Nicolas Winding Refn soundtrack, early 2000s Tech House and Miami Vice before it emancipates itself from these impressions. The opener “New Wave” has a similar retro vibe – no surprise of course, with a title like that – but still qualifies as warm, slightly acid tinged House.

Every time you locate something somewhere, Green is able to take your mind away from it again. “Lately” starts out like a tight and nicely driving Minimal track that could have come from Berlin or Jena, but as soon as you think you have localized things, the synths start telling you a very different story. Chords, pads and arps that would otherwise work well in Ambient, and soon enough the beat is gone, you’re hovering somewhere over the dancefloor, not just for a little tactical break that is only there for an effective drop, stay there, hover on, it’s okay, have a psychedelic break that lets you forget about beats and bass lines, and no, they won’t come back. Let it be lush.

“Lately” is the piece that makes clear that “Insides” is not an album that collects a bunch of House tracks that might have ended up on 12″es. It’s what an album should be, something that feels coherent. It ends with a track that isn’t really very much House anymore. And why not. As mentioned – it’s not like Michael Green had said hey let’s make a nice Deep House album. It’s probably just what he felt he wanted to do at the time. Which is fine with me. Can’t remember when I last listened to a full album of House without really noticing that that’s exactly what I am doing. I like that.

Release for review:
FORT ROMEAU – INSIDES – GHOSTLY INTERNATIONAL – GI-234

Buy the digital version on Bandcamp: Click
Get the vinyl on Discogs (sold out everywhere else): Click