- Too many DJs and producers arrive as complete packages these days, pristine and straight out of the box. It's why Seven Davis Jr's journey—a 15-year battle with artistic rejection and health problems, recently documented by RA—seems so compelling. These memories are etched onto every musical nuance, each vocal inflection. He's lived it and he means it.
The music here may have house as its bedrock, but really it's a form of 21st century blues and soul. "Friends" pivots around Davis's voice, which is an instrument of its own. A vocal scat loops across the six minutes, acting like a bassline, with little more than echo-laden handclaps and the briefest of pianos dropping by. Its attraction is its simplicity. On "Beautiful" Davis lays down some fidgety, hi-tempo Jersey garage. He locks into a groove then weaves in yet more idiosyncratic vocal tics, whirrs and wobbles.
As befits the title, there's a rawness to the EP's digital-only offering, "One (Live Edit)." Out of the three tracks here, this one sounds the most like Moodymann, an artist Davis has been compared to. As he tweaks the EQs, a deliciously fruity bassline wanders aimlessly underneath—although again it's that wonderful voice that is Davis Jr's most potent weapon.
TracklistA1 Friends
B1 Beautiful