It’s one thing to have a record that’s built to last — one you can pick out of the shelf and drop a year or five years from now and it still works like it did when it was new. It’s a sad commentary that this is rare enough these days among what passes for the charts and the DJs that follow them in the deep house scene.
It’s quite another thing, though, to have a record that ripens — that gets better with age. Kyle Hall’s The Polychronic was on the market for all of a week at the time of writing and every psychic nerve in my head was tingling about it. This is an EP that is absolutely lush — it revels in a 115 to 120 bpm mood, with a clear-eyed but fuzzy headed jazz sound that could have been pressed to wax 20 years ago or 20 years from now and will still be timeless. Hall has made a subtle shift in the last few years from a guy “influenced by” to a guy who influences others, but it’s hard to escape the memory of Mike Huckaby woven into the grooves on this heavily groovy EP. The title track was well-chosen: a bassline bubbles up above fuzzy hi hats and chords that alternately lull, sweeten and simmer.
Vinyl is not cheap right now, and it’s not cheap anywhere. Whether it’s the drag of inflation or the cost of getting typically short runs of underground deep house pressed between the latest super deluxe and typically pointless Record Store Day releases by the majors, it’s becoming increasingly rare to find anything priced under $15. So unless you’re getting all this shit for free, what you buy better deliver. That’s not a worry on most records we review here or most records Kyle Hall has made, but at $17 for a record you can play until you hang up your headphones? It’s a bargain at twice the price.
Kyle Hall: The Polychronic EP (Forget The Clock / July 26 2021 / 12″ Vinyl)
A1. Kyle Hall: “The Polychronic” (7:38)
B1. Kyle Hall: “Str8 Rollin” (5:59)
B2. Kyle Hall: “Ghost Dog” (6:28)
⚪️ Disclosure Statement: This record was not submitted as a promo.
This was originally published in #MadeWithLove: 5 Mag #192 with Solomun, Ultra Naté, Andrew Emil, Dam Swindle and more. Support 5 Mag by becoming a member for just $1 per issue.
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