★★★☆☆
After a compilation and alter ego LP within the last year, Luke Solomon is on the grind again. Whether because he has remixers in support to inspire him, or is just using another album as another mood, Solomon flies free in his dance floor crossings dominated by vocal collaborations. The big room takeovers feature song structured swing and an informal pop preponderance.
Solomon reaches out and away from fixed house and techno conceptions, bearing the lanky, geeky “Not Coming Home” and “Hey Giorgio” blurring back to the disco, as the album also contrasts long with quicker fixes. The husky road-tripper “Gods and Monsters” is a little more predictable with its guitar edge, though it’s suiting to a deep strutting Waifs & Strays remix shows timely backups are in place for any rare missteps. As an aside, Ewan Pearson actually arrives with no original to partner, his mix of “Lonely Dancer” somewhat confusing the remit. A better six stringer is to be found when “Let’s Bleed…” sets off on a big twanger of a riff, on an indie-dance free-for-all spooned from the same melting pot as carnival concern “Say Something.”
In turn, this huddles up with “Heading for a Breakdown” and “We Go” — fresh, Latin-zested runs within a minimal techno appraisal. The same DNA comes together on the more expressly Chicago “Interceptor”, with Solomon’s sound, based around but not confined to the club, consistently interesting by not fitting the bill.
File under: The Digital Kid, Hot Chip, David August