Following on from his superb 'Summer Dubs EP', Adam Goldstone releases his conceptual 'Lower East Side Stories' Long player.
As the title suggests there is indeed a story, or, in fact, a trilogy, behind the album.
But perhaps it's best not to dwell on Goldstone's concept album pretensions which, apart from giving journalists something to write about, are a distraction from one of Nuphonic's finest releases to date.
The album opens with 'In The Garden', featuring Ceybil Jefferies on vocals. At core it's a funky, Latin house workout, over which Jefferies delivers the usual New York wailing wall of disco diva vocals.
It's not the best track and not the best start to the record, being nothing like as good as the EP's dub version, which splintered Jefferies vocals into more digestible bite sized pieces. But it does reveal some of the detailed production that Goldstone brings to the fore later on the LP.
By contrast the gorgeous 'Mi Querida Loisaida' recreates the Puerto Rican sounds that describe New York's Lower East Side. Featuring Sally Cortes on vocals and Ray Barretto's pianist Hector Martignon on keys, the track takes off as Benno Hotz delivers a soaring trumpet solo.
This is the most Latin the album gets and from here on the music locks down into lush Moody Man/ Mood II Swing deep house territory.
'Possible Worlds', the third track, and others later on such as the delicious 'Earthblow' and 'Stardance', centre on hypnotic, funky and mid paced minimal riffs, which lock down the groove enabling Goldstone to nudge in effects and conga patterns.
In the midst of this he throws in the odd curve ball, such as the beautiful 'NYC Dub', which uses all the bass end, cymbals, fills and drum rolls of a King Tubby dub plate, but keeps the kick firmly in four four house territory.
Meanwhile 'Jacktalk' is a slow, electro house production that underpins a spoken polemic against triumphalist capitalism, greed and our hopelessly hedonistic and apolitical culture. "Moving away from reality, that's the beginning of the end of the world," we're prophetically warned.
To call this intelligent deep house would be a stupid understatement.
