★★★☆☆
The Frenchman teeming with 12s checks out the past but respects it rather than obsesses over it. Weighty house tunes know where they came from and where they sit now, Franck Roger starting with a slate of clean rhythms, sizing up the then and now, and finishing by polishing up the deep. The vocal track “Sands of Time” could come from any house era, and parallel to the title, Roger is creating his own timeline remixing the evolution of man diagram (pertinent also, as his last album was called “We Walk to Dance”).
“Gossando,” in the vein of a Mr. Fingers, and the lovely sun/moon-worshipping carnival “Surrounded,” tell of the effortlessly futuristic from a past perspective, leading to the deep and stylish through a familiar hum of chords rotation and phases. “Feel It” looks for a late-night balcony, leaving “Tension” to rotate and sweat like meat on a spit, as “Friday” stammers up a quiet storm clocking both ends of the thermometer. The two downtempo cuts, while from the same cloth, arrest the album’s flow and seem included on the basis of creative license — Roger having been straightforward in his aims, “Back With Your Love” backtracks as an unhurried electro-R&B worm, and “This World Don’t Go Round” tries a hip-hop slouch. While there are times you may think he should push forward more, the best quality comes from the most tried and tested.
File under: Octave One, Mandel Turner, DJ Roy, Olivier Portal