Detroit producer, composer, label boss, tour manager and engineer Kevin Reynolds has had a long and varied history in electronic music, which he’s augmented over the last 15 years with the creation of a small but perfectly formed catalog of deep house and techno.
Riverfront is his third release on Osunlade’s Yoruba label and comes with a Jon Dixon remix. The original is in the classic Detroit techno vein and does an extremely good job of re-arranging some familiar elements — an overdriven synth stab and some ticking, hissing percussion — into a deep, highly playable groove, based around a single, simple musical idea. Then he switches on some sublime musicality in the shape of three stately pad chords, which drop out before you want them to go, in a great example of the always-leave-’em-wanting-more approach. This economy of production and efficiency of arrangement is evident throughout the track; there’s no fanfare when a layer of superbly funky percussion comes in and each drum sound is trimmed, tight; even the reverb sounds restrained.
Jon Dixon’s remix is a more plush, slick affair, propelled by crisp percussion and a muted synth stab with some additional Rhodes noodling, strident piano licks and a key change that you expect to modulate back down but which never does. It’s dreamy and rushy, with a more contemporary feel than the original, which simply delivers that classic Detroit techno sound. Reynolds’ original isn’t about forging the sound of the future, it’s about simply luxuriating in that unmistakable, familiar Motor City combination of electronics and soul, which it does expertly.
Kevin Reynolds: Riverfront (with Jon Dixon Remix) (Yoruba / Digital)
1. Kevin Reynolds: Riverfront (Original) 06:33
2. Kevin Reynolds: Riverfront (Jon Dixon Remix) 06:21
⚪️ Disclosure Statement: This record was submitted as a promo.
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