Essential downbeat long-player by Detroit’s house music savior. Parallel Dimensions helped to forge a new jazz-infused path for Detroit house music in stark contrast to the citys storied tendency towards technofuturism, a road that has been heavily trodded by Kyle Hall, Dez Andres, Jay Daniel, Marcellus Pitmann and countless others in the time since. Theo Parrishs freeform exploration of house textures through repetition and limitation, initially embarked upon on 1998s First Floor and perfected here, owes more to jazz than traditional Midwestern deep house or techno. After opening with a couple of wonderfully repetitious rollers, things get serious when Theo fires up minor key scorcherSo What Now and effervescent downbeat jam Nefarious Strangers. The second disc contains 13-minute centerpiece Summertime Is Here and eternally soulful piano-led deep house number Violet Green, perhaps the highlight of the entire session.At a time when many producers were making precision-tuned minimal techno, Theoweaved a hypnotic tapestry of homegrown organic rhythms that still sounds fresh nearly two decades later. While the original vinyl pressing omitted four tracks from the CD version, this double vinyl reissue contains all nine tracks, housed in a stunning new die-cut sleeve designed by Sound Signatures Thomas Xuwith extensive notes from Theo on the back. Recommended.
- black double vinyl pressing
- housed in die-cut sleeve w/ new artwork
- original release year: 2000
- music label: Sound Signature 2017
reviewed by Letters To Theo06/2017
A post shared by @turntablelab on Aug 20, 2017 at 10:00am PDT
