- Honey Rocks ends a three-year hiatus for Recloose, a Detroiter who moved to New York in 2014 after more than a decade spent in New Zealand. There's little sense of that change on the EP, which continues Recloose's luminous hi-tech soul as before. In this case, that might not be a good thing. A series of solid EPs for Rush Hour seemed to peg Matthew Chicoine as a purveyor of sunny dance music, and Honey Rocks is a less inspired and oversaturated holdover from that period.
Chicoine sounds especially stuck on "On & On," where a looped vocal and some synth stabs take the title too literally and a soulful counter-vocal in the breakdown fails to offer relief. That one also suffers from an emotional flatness last seen on "Magic," a track whose happiness was cloying and insistent. There's more buoyancy to "Honey Rocks." The deep house jam is splattered with hand drum breakdowns and silky harmonies, but the central chord is too heavy an anchor.
"Honey Rocks" and "On & On" have different problems, but both could use the space and shade of "Sidewalks." Without the glaring melodies of its counterparts, "Sidewalks" feels loose and free of angst. A warm two-note bassline is the focal point, but small parcels of melody and texture are revealed with each listen: modular whistles, vocal coos and curls of saxophone take turns tugging at your ear. It's in less of a hurry than the rest of Honey Rocks, and it's more impressive for it.
TracklistA1 Honey Rocks
A2 On & On
B1 Sidewalks