Tragedies of a Plastic Soul Junkie

Producer and DJ Terrance Parker’s debut album arrived in 1996 like a breath of cool, fresh air across a crowded dance floor, an album of unashamedly devotional piano house, jazzy broken beat and instrumental hip hop. The uptempo tracks — “You Can Do It” and “Welcome 2 Southfield” are particular stand-outs — are sharp, sparkling, disco-fied, relentless, rolling Detroit house, while album opener “The Emancipation of My Soul” begins life as a down-tempo dreamy Ibiza chill-out track before speeding up into an exemplar of Parker’s uplifting piano house sound. Alternating between club-aimed house music and more dreamy, inward-looking downtempo/hip hop/soul, the album feels a little like a soundtrack, its individual songs hanging together as part of a larger whole.