- What is it about that acoustic-sounding bass that has Reggie Dokes so transfixed? Whatever it is, he's right to be: On "Love" and "Rain on Me" on his debut EP for Philpot, it slices through the rest of the track sounding deliciously out of place until Dokes brings in enough elements to help place it in its proper context.
It's the same sound that Dokes worked to such wondrous effect on "Release Yourself" earlier in 2008, but it's not the only highlight here. That would go to the distorted strings and flickering-circuit keyboard, or maybe even the descending horn that pushes its way through "Rain on Me" like it owns the joint. And we haven't even gotten to the sublime "Black Children of the Ghetto" yet, which nods its head over the course of six piano-laden minutes.
That last track is sublime deep house that takes what the European minimalists of last week are doing and shows them to be what they are: clean and soulless replications. As for the "Love" and "Rain on Me"? Those two are the work of an individual following his idiosyncratic sound down wherever it takes him. It's house music, sure. But it's house music being reimagined from the ground-up. Here's to further constructions.
Tracklist A1 Love
B1 Rain On Me
B2 Black Children Of The Ghetto