Duende

Released in summer 1998, a decade since acid house’s ‘Second Summer of Love,’ UK electronic duo A Man Called Adam’s second album Duende was a delightful and accomplished collection of electronic and club/club adjacent songs. The genres are house, disco and downtempo; album opener Easter Song is 20th-century English-electronic-folk, Oaktown is downtempo synth-funk, Bite The Pillow is cheery glitter-ball disco-house, All My Favourite People (Stay With Me) is a melancholy broken-break club track, Wouldn’t She is sultry space-R’n’B — but AMCA continually bring an inventiveness and originality to their productions that enriches their work. You get the sense that they’ve never used a sample pack or a synth pre-set in their career, a technique that means 25 years after its release, Duende really hasn’t dated that much: quality lasts.