Artist: James Teej
Title: Evening Harvest
Label: Rekids
Catalog #: REKIDS005CDD
Genre: Minimal
Release Date: June 1, 2010
Rating: 7
Canadian-born James Teej has only recently become popular in European circles, thanks in part to chart-busting releases on Rebirth and Connect Four. 2010 has been a big year for the Toronto DJ, with follow ups to his 2009 epic Spending Life as well as work on Perspectiv and My Favorite Robot. By far Teej's biggest release is his full length album off of the ReKids label. With a fusion of his vocals and slick minimal tech-house, Evening Harvest offers an eclectic mix, and occasionally refinement, of his trademark 'minimal soul' style.
The metaphorical harvest of Evening Harvest can be read as a couple of things. The more traditionally soul-inspired female companion is the first. A potentially dangerous substance addiction to is the second. It might even be both, as the lyrical narrative will often blend the two in a perplexing mix of melancholy crooning and semi-retro beats. Monaco Villa is a good example of this, though the combination of bouncy bass, Teej's singing and high-key synth sticks it far better than some of the later tracks. It's probably not a stretch to say that the literal harvest of Evening Harvest is the 90's. Many of the tracks could easily have stepped out of a '97 club mix, even when there's a visible influence of present-day minimal. It could just be the soul, which has never aged well as a genre.
The album opens strong with B4 Spring, a punchy tech-house track that keeps the percussion to an absolute minimum while a jazzy staircase of analog builds a bridge to the body of the album. The problem is that this bridge is incomplete. B4 has no vocals, and while the melody is somewhat similar to the rest of the work it doesn't quite fit with everything else (only one other track lacks vocals). The true introduction to Harvest is the aforementioned Monaco Villa, which establishes Teej's leanings towards retro tech-house and soul vocals. Late Blooming is a slight departure that sounds, again, like part of a really good 90's club mix. A mournful organ, rhythmic clap and darting synth paint the background for Teej's vocals to really shine, perhaps better than any other vocal track.
In truth Harvest represents a marriage between types of sounds. Tracks like Sicken and the incredibly smooth Seven Day Mend cleanly thresh together a strong, soulful melody from the clubby beats. Sadly, sometimes these marriages are shams, and even the glossy sheen of soul music can't slow the impending meltdown of a supposedly idyllic coupling. Luckily only Greenbacks (which features French multi-instrumentalists dOP) and The Rain Awakening offend here, with the former backing up vocals with an odd Yasunori Mitsuda-esque rythm and the latter mixing a middle-eastern type riff that, while an interesting departure, is still a huge departure. The final track is in an odd limbo of sorts, acting as a workable, if uninspired outro that finds its place somewhere in between.
Most of the tracks on Evening Harvest are interesting, and a couple of them are real standouts. Moments of Late Blooming and Seven Day Mend bring to the table a sexy style that Teej pulls of masterfully. Though there is a lack of overall album cohesion (as well as the occasional misfire), there is enough here for Teej to continue his harvest of work and prestige.
- Jared Rosen
Tracks:
2. Monaco Villa
3. Late Blooming
4. Greenback feat. dOP
5. We Collide
6. Left Believing
7. Seven Day Mend
8. The Rain Awaiting
9. Sicken
10. All We Have Is Time
Strong album (love the
We need more education out
thanks for the wonderful
Absolutly bangin mix phil
Great Mix... Love hearing
VERY NICE