- Three releases in with New York's Image Man and it's clear that we're just beginning to see what he's capable of doing with stony sampling. Prior releases have showcased dense, effected loops that forgo easy grooving in favor of sheer stupefaction, and with Glance he spikes this formula with bits of rupture. These house tracks bulge at the seams, acknowledging the pleasure of the loop while pushing back against its regularity. Even the relatively straightforward "More," a stepper's groove built around scraps of Barry White's "I'm Gonna Love You Just a Little Bit More Baby," can't keep itself together as the samples trip in and out of time and the drums knock around with unquantized indifference.
The sleeve notes say these are live recordings, and it's true that they sound as if half-composed and half-DJed. "Else" is the real achievement of this combination, even though it sounds like a DJ gleefully clearing a dance floor. It begins as a jerky rhythm resembling an old Hotflush release, but gets subsumed by a backwards vocal sample. After banishing every element, Michael Jackson's voice snaps into focus and carries the track to its echoey conclusion. "Goobye" is just as bent on confusing the listener: its snares say "jack" but its low-end is so distant that it's difficult to distinguish kick drum from bassline, creating more atmosphere than propulsion.
The title track, a deep roller with no sense of mischief about it, is the reward for Glance's taxing aspects. Those who see Image Man as being concerned more with soulful fuckery than moving a crowd might consult the B1 before jumping to conclusions. The EP displays a healthy skepticism of the sometimes transient pleasures to be found in repetition, but this one shows that Image Man is as susceptible to carefree grooves as the rest of us.
TracklistA1 More
A2 Else
B1 Glance
B2 Goobye