- Runner opens with a preacher talking over circular, tuned African percussion: "When you have real change, everybody's thing begins to change. A teacher begins to teach a new lesson. A preacher begins to preach a new sermon. And a musician often tries to capture the new thing so that we might have melody and have rhythm as we do our thing."
The contradiction there is obvious: This album is neither outlandish nor groundbreaking. Glimpse—the British DJ-producer Christopher Sperro—puts his inspirations pretty well out front. "If I Was Your Girl," for example, starts out as a stark and smoky dub-house with foggy organs before morphing, with the addition of a cut-up Janet Jackson phrase, into something that more closely resembles the kind of re-edits Mark E makes. "Things to Do in Denver" is tied to ideas bred in Detroit house of the Moodymann/Theo Parrish school, laid-back dialogue ("Hey, baby, what's good?") laid into the jazzy hi-hats and spacy, spiny synths.
The difference is that Sperro's ministrations of his source material tends to be a lot shorter, more slivery and fidgety—not as in "fidget house," thankfully, but he likes to repeat-repeat-repeat little things, letting the effect wash over you, rather than the kind of played-out-at-length mind-movies Moody likes. Glimpse's sense of space is tighter, and therefore more pop. And signifying pop without necessarily sounding it (in a chart sense) is a good way for an album to keep opening up with repeat listens, something Runner does nicely.
Another reason: Glimpse's neatness makes Runner a comfortable listen, one that neither lacks for surprise nor ever quite rushes at you. The tempos are comfortable for house: Even the bouncy "New Beginnings" seems to gallop leisurely. The track could have been on a Force Inc. comp around 2002—a good Force Inc. comp. Similarly, thanks in part to bass that glistens, glowers and glides all at the same time, "I Know It I Show It" recalls a poppier variant on Thomas Brinkmann's Soul Center material. The bluesy-jazzy singer there ("I belong to you") bends her notes so much that when Sperro cuts between an octave here or there it seems natural, somehow. The album works similarly.
Lista de títulos 01. Walk Tall
02. If I Was Your Girl
03. Things to Do in Denver
04. Alone Again
05. New Beginnings
06. Feel OK
07. I Know I Show It
08. Enjoyable Employable
09. Thankyou
10. Train in Austria