Recommended: Gerry Read - Crave / Enjoy A Day Out

The last two years have been marked by a slew of 12-inches from Gerry Read, almost all of which explored skewed and pieced together forms of house music. It’s a definite deviation from the in vogue lo-fi aesthetic that’s been doing the rounds of late. Any grit or hiss that finds its way into the final mix is there out of necessity, not style. This plus Read’s attitude and overall mystique make him an enigma – one of the few who emerge out of burgeoning music scenes every few years. Between the playful aurora that stems from his goofy title names to the actual music he lends himself to comparisons to Zomby and Legowelt (though he obviously has a long way to go before he can be put in the same category as either). Last year’s “Jummy” was an ode to himself and the music that has seeped out of his production from the beginning – jazz. After purging that from his system his next step was anyone’s guess. However, on “Crave / Enjoy A Day Out” Read returns to his longtime home Fourth Wave and it looks like for the moment he is content within the confines of house and deep record samples.

As with his earlier singles “Crave” takes a single sample and retools it into the track’s main attraction. In this case Read commandeers fuzzy Rhodes chords, which are then looped and resampled throughout the track’s seven-minutes. As with much of dance music it is built off samples and captures a moment only to let it run wild. Read executes it almost perfectly on the A-side as every phrase comes together nicely forming a piece of music that many will undoubtedly want more of. His background as a drummer is definitely a plus as both tracks contain his signature swing and muddy kick drum. Some people are infatuated with the sounds of the 909 and 808 others just love the sound of a live drum kit – this is for them. The flip follows a similar set of guidelines. Scuzzy rides, chopped syllables, and repetition in both the vocal and sample category are the skeleton of “Enjoy A Day Out”. The name’s completely fitting as we can imagine people taking a day off to dance on the beach to tunes in this vein. Again, whatever Read does to his kick drums works. They are distinctive, transparent yet weighty, and give the track a pair of legs to stand on; replacing them with anything else would nearly destroy it. For movement and melody he plays with monophonic tones, which push and pull the track in multiple directions along with occasional filter. It’s brilliant stuff and a refreshing take on an increasingly stale strain of music. Precious few artists can create music that traipse the lines between creative, danceable, and approachable, but Gerry Read has (so far). What makes this and Read in general even more enticing is that this may all be unintentional (to an extent) considering his lack of footprints in club culture. Here’s to at least two more years of Gerry Read.

Stream: Gerry Read – “Crave / Enjoy A Day Out” (Fourth Wave)