Suzanne Kraft – Talk From Home
For much of his career under the Suzanne Kraft alias, Diego Herrera has delivered delightfully warm, loose and baggy fare. Roughly 50 percent of this has been lightly aimed at sticky, humid dancefloors – see the boogie-sampling, Balearic house loveliness of the Running Back released Green Flash EP, or the eyes-closed bliss of Horoscope on Young Adults – with the rest being concerned with the horizontal desires of post-club listening. This was how the Los Angeles based producer began, after all – see the 2010 mini-album Missum, which was deservedly reissued last year by Running Back, or the more experimental, new age inclined Tracks For Performance 12” – and in some ways it remains his strongest suit.
This extended outing for Jonny Nash’s Melody as Truth imprint is amongst Herrera’s most potent and evocative work to date. Like much of the material on Nash’s label, Talk From Home seems to be inspired by both deep feelings of melancholy and a yearning for blissful release. Previously, though, it has been Nash at the controls; this time, Herrera is dancing – or, more accurately, reclining – to the Land of Light and Gaussian Curve man’s tune.
Certainly, opener “Two Chord Wake” – all soft-touch rhythms, new age melodies and yearning guitars – sounds like one of Nash’s own productions (with a bit of Vangelis Katsoulis thrown in). Similar comparisons can be made about the gorgeous, effects-laden guitar passages of “Flatiron” – so sweet, effortless and gliding that you’re likely to start daydreaming about days spent lazing around in sunnier climes – and the spaced-out, late-night electrics of “Male Intuition”.
There are, of course, deviations from the script, though these, too, are similarly dreamy. This is a very precise style of dreaminess; crisp and clean, as if drawn in felt tip with bold lines, with the resultant gaps filled in with watercolours. This is particularly evident on the drawn-out synthesizer chords, backwards effects and oh-so-sparse guitars of “The Result”. The same subdued but picturesque aural colours are at the heart of the loose synthesizer chords, new-age melodies and twinkling guitars of the surprisingly breezy “Renee Sleeping”. The title track, too, seems seeped in an orange glow, its bubbling, synthesizer-heavy tunefulness offset by a veritable swell of chords enveloping it.
The EP’s best moment – and its’ packed with memorably emotive fare – is arguably “Never Heated”. Unlike much of the rest of the release, it puts groove to the fore. These are not bold, dancefloor-leaning rhythms, though, but rather sparse, reverb-heavy percussive hits, backed up by an admirably metronomic bassline. This rhythm – minimal yet alluring, and tough enough to make an impression – provides the perfect backdrop for Herrera to display his mastery of chords and melodies. This time, it’s the distinctive sound of a Fender Rhodes electric piano, with Herrera alternating between sumptuous chords and hazy solos. It’s a majestic piece of music, and further proof of Herrera’s instinctive touch when it comes to concocting moments of overwhelming downtempo brilliance.
Matt Anniss
Tracklisting:
A1. Two Chord Wake
A2. Never Heated
A3. Flatiron
B1. Renee Sleeping
B2. Talk From Home
B3. Male Intuition
B4. The Result