Heritage

%%header%%

%%message%%

House, like many musical approaches, has long since found practitioners far away from the land of its birth, and Dutch performer 2000 and One is but one of many European producers addicted to the exhilarating sound of 4/4 in excelsis. For that reason it's perhaps not surprising at all that Heritage sounds the way it does, or even that it's titled what it is -- it's a full-on tribute to the late '80s, when 2000 and One began making music himself, and as such this can't be viewed through any other lens, for good or for ill. It's less about the overall presentation than the details, some of which show enjoyable flair, like the break on Honey Bush taking everything down to skittering beats and vocal snippets before the pulse returns, or the cool melodic flow of Dat Na Poku, one of the album's standouts. But otherwise Heritage provides something that won't surprise anyone either way -- detractors won't be convinced of house's glories while supporters will think that there's just not enough moving the music here forward, stylishly done as tracks like Burnin Dub and Egusi are. There are far worse ways to kill an hour, though, and as much as anything else is roots music these days, classic house deserves that status and its own dedicated performers as anything else. ~ Ned Raggett, Rovi