Joey Anderson - Exotic Sequence (Deeptrax)

 

Title: Exotic Sequence 

Artist: Joey Anderson

Label: Deeptrax

Cat Number: DPTX-035

Genre: Deep House

1: Monotheisn

2: Behind The Valley

3: Opix2

4: Stop

5: Exotic Sequence

6: Sky Children

7: Formations

8: After The Rain

Even though it wasn’t his first release, I came across Joey Anderson after having picked up his ‘Earth Calls’ release on Anthony Parasole’s and Levon Vincent’s now defunct Deconstruct label. Said track was also featured on Vincent’s Fabric mix cd, and heralded (to me, at least) a new, singular voice straddling the deep house/techno divide. His sound was, and continues to be unique. Not quite anything it’s really supposed to be, dealing in abstraction but somehow rhythmatically holding it all together, it’s a twilight take on the categories in question, reserved, serious, and dense with possibility. The music of dancing dreams if you will. Delicate, gossamer-like keys and bass wander in and out of a lullaby beat subterfuge. It doesn’t feel very danceable, but then again it is. Right time, right place I suppose. Anderson’s past as a dancer would ensure that, in some way feet can be moved and shapes can be thrown. Almost a fusion of tai chi and vogueing, something like Lindsay Kemp would have wanted. And this album shows Anderson at the top of his game, preserving his sound and direction, still sounding like nothing else out there. The title track is perhaps the most upfront composition here, with its Howitzer like syncopated synth stabs, underlayed by a characteristic, dampened kick, and adorned by fragile keyboard flourishes. ‘Formations’ employs a similar intensity. Everything is low key, simmering with understated menace. Crescendoes are rarely reached, rather a drone of finely-honed chaos that could go on eternally. ‘Monotheism’, which opens the album, is almost setting the standard too high, with its glittering chords and haunting phrases. ‘Opix 2’ & ‘Sky Children’, on the other hand, feel bereft of body, but have as much muscle.  And that’s par for the course on this album, which is exquisite from start to finish; symphonic in parts and a transfiguring listening experience.