This is a collection of early Planet E singles, so don’t let the massage board boys distract you with their toothless opinions of Kenny Dixon Jr. You get the raw essentials of the Moodymann approach here: gospel vocals, smooth foundation, and lots of freaky decoration around the edges. The Moodymann vibe is pure church, but contemplative, not the holy rollers testifying kind of church. This is that inner gold.

Detroit producer Kenny Dixon Jr.’s 1997 debut album was a compilation of his previous 12” single releases from his KDJ Records label. It’s an atmospheric, hazy, melancholic collection of deep house; repetitive, experimental and with an overall aesthetic that reeks of authenticity — the EQ tweaks on tracks like Oceans sound as live as any you’d hear in a DJ mix tape. One of Dixon’s many gifts is the ability to imbue his sample-based tracks with a sense of life and humanity, something he does expertly here, filling his sampler with snippets from the history of black music, reworking them into contemporary club tracks, creating maximal cosmic disco-tech from minimal elements. All the tracks are edited to run into each other, kind of like a DJ club set, which just adds to the complete immersive nature of the thing. An excellent debut.