Recommended: Moody - Why Do U Feel EP

Where to start with this one? First, we’re sorry we didn’t post it sooner – the timing of its summer release so perfectly suits what’s found within. Under his Moody guise, Kenny Dixon Jr has crafted a trio of songs for late afternoons with warm breezes, though as the seasons change we’re just as happy to reappropriate them for chilly winter mornings in bed. The EP’s title track “Why Do U Feel” functions as its opener as well, starting off quietly enough to have you second-guess whether you’re actually listening to a Detroit legend or Nicolas Jaar. A crooning female vocal weaves in and out as the backdrop skips around like a radio dial scanning aimlessly across faded waves. It pauses here and there on a number of different sounds, any of which could lay grounds for the rest of the track to progress. It’s only tied together following the 2-minute mark with the introduction of a lovely warm kick, and suddenly it all makes sense.

Stream: Moody – Why Do U Feel (KDJ Records)

“I Got Werk” is lo-fi and crackling, filled with its muffled conversations, handclaps, and KDJ’s own voice singing the hook. It’s so close to the soulful roots of house that we almost forgot that that’s what it was, being so far removed to its glossed-out relatives, but what a shining example it is. The lively yet cool and collected jam rolls along at a steady 121bpm, definitely making it the most playable selection of the release. The corresponding video, posted on Mahogani Music‘s YouTube back in July, is a great accompaniment and it’s lovely to see Moody so deeply involved with every aspect of the record all the way to appearing in his own video (which you can stream after the jump).

We were hoping that the EP’s closer, called “Born 2 Die,” received that name as a coincidence, but it turns out that Lana del Rey really is that ubiquitous. Perhaps Moody is to be applauded for being this indifferent and sampling as he pleases: after all, given his back catalogue, he can do whatever he wants. Maybe it’s genuine, maybe LDR provided exactly what he was looking for. Maybe it’s a ruse to deter any of listeners that would be so ruffled by a Del Rey sample as to stop listening and turn to something else (in which case, he probably wouldn’t want you listening anyway). If statement-making was on the agenda, then expert treatment of the contentious sample would be most influential in persuading the abandoning of biases against those cashing in on the LDR craze. Unfortunately, the languorous vocal simply drags the song down, no matter whose it is. We thought that maybe LDR’s forever-summer aesthetic could have backed up the vibe of the EP so far, but it’s almost as if her lifelessness has the power to infect everything around it, even draining KDJ’s ability to work his magic. Luckily, the first two-thirds of the release are enchanting enough that we’d have enjoyed the EP equally as much with the exclusion of the last track altogether.