Rhauder and Paul St. Hilaire: Reconnection

I could say that with Rhauder and Paul St. Hilaire you should know what to expect, but that would take this record all too lightly.

Instead, let me tell you about one of the best records in my bag right now. Reconnection is by my count the fourth collaboration between Paul and Rhauder, all on Ornaments. The previous three are well known enough that this is one of the few times a label has written a single line in a sales note – like what I thought about doing above – and it doesn’t come off as pretentious.

Four beautiful tracks here, of the kind of deep dubby techno that nobody else can master. Hypnotic, exotic and scientifically fortified to make your head nod and your hips swivel. They start off with just a pulse, and it already feels like it could stay like that forever and say no more, it’d be quite enough. Instead, a mesmerizing vocal from St. Hilaire (aka Tikiman, stationed in Berlin but connected by umbilicus to a spiritual realm few musicians have ever reached) winds like a serpent around muted synths and just enough carib elements to make you keep wondering if this is about to break forth into a full rocksteady – and a flash of reverb and an overall mood of exhausted exaltation, it’s gone.