Deep house is a genre suffering from a bit of an identity crisis these days. Ritually teased by the mainstream dance press for its hermetic studio existence and cast of less-than colourful characters, times are a bit hard. Gavin Froome, we suspect, will do little to alter the genre's public perception, for a cheeky Phats & Small kinda' chappy he is not. But who gives a shit when the music sounds like this? Pictured on the cover of this album, Gavin sits surrounded by the dodgy analogue synths, Moogs and sequencers that he uses to forge evocative tracks with wonderful titles like 'Fly Me To Brazil'.
Of course he is occasionally prone to noodle-heavy over-indulgences, but the majority of this album is refreshingly free of the painful cliches of deep house – like acoustic jazz guitar ('Closer To Leaving' excepted!) and moaning FX-heavy female vocals. There is an old-school simplicity to this stuff that recalls the best of Mr Fingers' early productions though, needless to say, it fails to achieve those heights. Instead, Froome finds a sound which is satisfied to be a bit of an underachiever – you could pick almost any one of the cuts on this album and hand it to someone like Pepe Bradock for a more dramatic, harder interpretation, the potential is all here. Stand-outs include the Ron Trent-meets-Glenn Underground ooze of 'Knee Deep' and the slightly Moodyman-esque 'It is Time'.
