Martin Dawson - Sunday Smoking

  • Share
  • Thank God for Sundays—literally. It's impossible to say if the day of rest, comedowns, hangovers, after-parties and aftermaths would have existed without the Book of Genesis first identifying it as the Lord's own chill-out time. Martin Dawson's debut for Sasse's label, Sunday Smoking partakes in the weekly ritual of indolence with a brew of warm, carefree tunes that reek of daytime parties but also omelettes and Bloody Marys. Call it brunch house. Throughout the LP Dawson culls heavily from the deep house playbook, using a number of tried and true motifs, like jazzy keys, sliced-and-diced soul vocals, conga loops and distinctly house-y drum kits, but always with a care and sophistication that betrays the decade or so of music-making under his belt. Sunday Smoking is a reminder that the quality of a meal is not necessarily always dependent on the novelty of the recipe, and that skills of the chef are as crucial in the kitchen as the quality of the ingredients. Taken individually the LP's most effective cuts tend to be the uptempo numbers like "The Return," which momentarily shrug off some of the more obvious genre signifiers—too many midtempo Rhodes riffs in a row can begin to feel a bit airless, and a good surging filter or two can act like a much-needed dose of fresh air. With its big drums, the nimbly propulsive "Morning Glory" is likewise an attention-getter—here Dawson works up a full head of steam with a dense mixture of rhythm patterns that manage to sound busy without becoming cluttered. It's a particularly athletic workout on what is largely a relaxing affair, enjoyable whether your ass is on the floor or nestled in an overstuffed couch. One of the standout mellow tunes is the opening "Blissful Ignorance," whose bouncing, cut-up electric piano riff, is a strong mood-setter. The neat segue into "Chariot" underscores the LP's strong sense of cohesiveness—it's less about the personalities of single tracks than the feeling of a ten-track sculpted whole, something you're likely to experience if you're smoking on a Sunday and time seems to slip away from you.
  • Tracklist
      01. Blissful Ignorance 02. Chariot 03. Is This Goodbye 04. Morning Glory 05. Soft Synth 06. Submerge 07. Sunday Smoking 08. Take It Down 09. The Return 10. The Sleeping Dawn
RA