- The boys are back in town, with Timmy Regisford in tow.
- Together, Francis Harris and Anthony Collins make some of the most soothing house music around. That's not a dig at their creativity—over just a few records, the French-American duo conjured up a detailed, sepia-toned palette, all smudged lines and fuzzy borders, taking influence from Harris's hero (and friend) DJ Sprinkles and making something new with those shaking, eternally plodding drums. Absorbing ideas from dub, ambient and jazz, each Frank & Tony record felt like a dispatch from a warm, cozy basement, where these two old friends were casually coming up with brilliance. Then they broke up, with Harris focusing on ever more out-there solo records (and his venue, public records) and Collins continuing down the deeper-than-deep house path with his Grant project. Now, with Dream Vibration, the duo make a low-key return. Like most reunions between best friends, it picks up exactly where they left off, as if no time had passed at all.
Those looking for a bite of comfort food should head to the end of the record for "Time Out Of Mind," whose perky-but-not-too-perky ascending bassline and beautiful hi-hat, suspended in mid-air, is Frank & Tony bliss. The two occasionally pull out the drums for zero-gravity passages, and where that device can feel cheap in the hands of others—pull out the bass, make the crowd go wild—it comes off almost meditative here. "Stretch Out Like The World" features a flinty vocal from Eliana Glass, and the way the duo build the rhythm around her elongated phrasing is another lesson in subtlety. There's a steady, rollicking beat, but the other percussive accents seem to curl around Glass's voice, as slowly unfurling chords whine like a train horn in the distance.
That leaves the title track, which might be one of my favorite Frank & Tony cuts of all. Built around a breakbeat that floats just above the ground, never quite touching Earth, it features exquisite, mournful pads that surface like condensation, only growing in intensity as the track builds (they remind me a little of a Loscil track). "Dream Vibration" has another one of those excellent basslines, this time sounding like it's stretching out after first waking up, as the kick drum holds it all together like an inherent circadian rhythm. There's a John Lennon sample that feels a little goofy, but hey, Harris and Collins are nothing if not earnest. Dream Vibration features some of their best, most heartfelt work ever.
Tracklist01. Dream Vibration
02. Stretch Out Like The World feat. Eliana Glass
03. Stretch Out Like The World (Timmy Regisford Vocal Mix)
04. Stretch Out Like The World (Timmy Regisford Instrumental Mix)
05. Time Out Of Mind