Dark Ascension

A decade after his first 12” release on his Harmonie Park label, prolific and influential Detroit house producer Rick Wade released his debut album in 2004. It’s a well-named album, taking a minimal, low-key approach to the deep house template. There aren’t many big peaks and troughs or builds and breaks here; instead he programs solid arrangements that are purely dance-floor-focused, creating slow-burn, nocturnal, underground jams that do indeed provide a sense of ascension, and with a definite dark atmosphere. The first two tracks expertly meld live instrumentation and percussion into, respectively, a Bossa nova and a samba-influenced house track, each partly retro, partly futurist, but the titles of the next two tracks — “Grimm” and “Cold Space” — signal the eerie, mournful mood he explores for the rest of the album. Almost entirely devoid of any vocals and made purely from synthetic elements, the tracks are covered in a highly reflective sheen and imbued with a low-level lonely, yearning atmosphere that embodies the spirit, if not the thud or intensity, of Detroit techno.