While we’re getting ready to celebrate our 25th anniversary next year it’s safe to say Rush Hour wouldn’t have existed without the music of Moodymann and the rest of the Detroit house illuminaries that emerged in the mid-nineties. At least not in this shape or form.

In the quarter of a century since Carl Craig’s Planet E imprint released Kenny Dixon Jr’s debut album ‘Silentintroduction’ Moodymann has been a major inspiration to our operation, something that hasn’t changed over the years. In 2021 he is as relevant as ever, still doing things his own way at his own pace, untouched by trends or fads.

The joy is still there and so is the pain - the pain of being black in America for instance, something Moodymann got a double dose of when he was violently harassed by the police on his own property for no reason at all in 2019 - and the simpler pains of a love gone South, as is the case on the Al Green-sampling opener ‘Do Wrong’, a trademark slo-mo KDJ house joint with the sort of bassline only Moody could have come up with.

The joy and pain are perfectly exemplified on the title track. Built around Roberta Flack’s ‘Sunday and Sister Jones’ it balances an upbeat boogie house groove with cries of despair, ominous strings, thunder and police sirens coming just a little too close for comfort before speeding off into the distance.

‘Slow Down’ and ‘Just Stay A While’ both sound gorgeous over our Klipsch speakers; two slow-burning funk-fueled boogie house joints that evoke images of long hot summer days in the city - but not without the drama and the trauma - there’s those damn police sirens again. (RO)