Chicago Forever

What really works about this 2004 set from Chicago House alumni Roy Davis Jr. is how it maintains a particular sonic character, a certain RDJ feel, while cycling through assorted flavours and variations of R’n’B, soul, broken beat and house. Davis — mainly known as a house artist — has made his career putting out a mix of dark, underground, relentless, looping jacking tracks, and more melodic, soulful house integrating a more traditional musical vocabulary. It’s the latter style that runs right through this album, and the driving Chi-house jams and smokey late-night R’n’B  tunes alike are all full of Rhodes, wah-wah guitar, clavinet, organs and neat little ensemble horn riffs, neatly integrated with the samples, synthesisers and machine beats. Davis’ decision to stick to this stylistic consistency makes Chicago Forever’s wandering into semi-broken beat/bruk territory on “Wonderland” and lounge/theme music on “Nu Roots” work very well indeed, and with some decent songs and a handful of quality collaborations, makes for an hour and four minutes of highly enjoyable Chicago music history.