aroy dee: sketches

After more than a decade of releasing raw and emotional house music, Dutch producer and architect Aroy Dee drops his debut album on his own M>O>S label. Limited edition of 300 with a sketch book. Sketches has been made for home-listening, thereby resisting the ever-changing trends of the dancefloor. The album sets a continuous mood that slowly intensifies, evolves and unfolds, taking you through new sounds and scenes in coherent and considered ways. Opening with the blissful ambiance of "Night Sky," it slowly roams through stretched-out, atmospheric deep house on "Pure," lazy electro on "Decay" and sombre future city 'scapes on "Descent." "City of Others" begins to jack and whip around more energetically but retains a serene sense of soul thanks to the smooth and seductive synths. The second half of the album picks up the pace a little, with icy hi-hats, prickly bass lines and careful percussive cacophonies jamming around the ever-present synth patterns Dee so expertly paints. A self-contained work that combines that distinct Aroy Dee sound we know and love with the proper narrative arc any good album requires, Sketches has been a long time coming but proves most certainly worth the wait.