Wow. This CD absolutely rocks. Ryan Raddon (the brainchild behind Kaskade) never fails to impress with his highly musical and melodic sensibilities. “In the Moment” hails from San Francisco's OM record label, so its pedigree is rich with quality deep house and downtempo electronic music. An organic, warm and soulful quality blankets the overall sound of “In the Moment.” Tempowise, there’s a half-and-half balance between straight-up house and downtempo songs, one after the other- and it works great for the overall play of the CD. Remember the old Mo' Wax recordings of the early 90’s? Well, all the downtempo tracks here have that same classic feel. Jazzy, electronic, funky, tight, tasteful, precision programming. Live instrumentation adds to the easy feel. No detail overlooked.
OK, so it sounds great, but are the songs any good? Simply put, there’s zero filler here. Every song is a song. Arrangement, instrumentation and vocals all meld together naturally and flow like sunshine and spring water. For comparison, you’ll hear echoes of Portishead, Massive Attack, Everything But the Girl and Sade. The CD opens with the first single from the CD, “Steppin’ Out” - an instant, out-of-the-box classic house track. The second track, “Maybe” brings the tempo down and introduces another gem of a song, with sultry female vocals and straight-up trip-hop style. It’s back and forth with the house and slower tracks, and when “Sweet Love” surfaces, you’ll be hearing one of the more sublime and groovy house tracks in existence. Joslyn’s vocals are bliss, and the sounds of acoustic guitars bathe the house groove.
By now you’ll have noticed how great the strings and violin solos are in all these songs, and midway through the CD, I kept thinking of the sound of Fellini’s films (can’t forget to give props to Nino Rota). The “Interlude” track is pure strings evolving into the next downtempo jam. The next house track is “Everything,” bringing in an electro 80s feel, bouncy and great vocals once again. The next one “Yeah Right” has got to be the funkiest jam here, I think Curtis Mayfield and Parliament-Funkadelic would highly dig on this phat one. Back to the bouncy fast beats with “Move,” and you’ll hear a track very similar to stuff Bassment Jaxx does. I have to say I’m partial to the house tracks on this Kaskade CD, and still I think the entire CD is slammin’ soul music, and I love it all! As a side note, it’s interesting how Ryan Raddon grew up around the house scene in Chicago and imported the energy to Salt Lake City, converting the sleepy Mormon nightlife into a big dance party. Once that fire was stoked, he relocated to San Francisco, where he continues to spread the deep house gospel. This CD is one of the best electronic pieces to breeze through this year, and as easy to slide into as sandals and a T-shirt. Casual brilliance.
