“Stay Home” finds UK producer Rob Orme back in Tokyo producing out of a 9th floor apartment in Shibuya. Home to one of the world’s busiest railway stations (2.5 million pass through a day), Shibuya is the hectic epicentre of the most populated metropolitan area in the world. At night the area brims with garish love hotels and Sararimen out on the tiles, by day it’s home to some very decent record shops (head to Time Out and Resident Advisor for more on vinyl in Japan) – the overall atmosphere is one of frenzied activity delivered at lightening pace. It’s the kind of environment that immediately starts to interfere with your circadian rhythm the moment you arrive – infecting your very being with the energy of millions of other souls living life at double speed.
With such a backdrop, it’s no surprise that Stay Home ups the tempo ante from submerse’s previous release “Slow Waves“. That’s not to say submerse has shifted style, all the previous hallmarks are present yet also interspersed with frantic percussion and a more liberal use of soulful R&B and Hip Hop vocal samples. Where Slow Waves dwelt on reminiscence, Stay Home synthesizes a hybrid of this style, juxtaposing a hip-hop instrumental back bone with busy urban life.
Manic footwork rhythms dance with intensity across Gloom and Trip – further showcasing submerse’s already bone fide skills in intricate beat programming, whilst lashings of ’90s R&B samples syrup their way through Take It Slow, just about keeping things the right side of proper late night bump and grind territory. For fans of his more subdued work, Thinking About You and Bokeh will more than satisfy your needs – the meaning of ‘Bokeh’ neatly summing up everything there is to love about submerse’s output in just two syllables.
At 17 minutes long, Stay Home is short but the perfect length for a decent vinyl cut – limited versions of which are available at hhv. On digital you get a bonus track and if you can track down the Japanese CD release there’s two further excellent bonus tracks. Solid stuff from a prolific yet high quality producer.
Stay Home is out now on Project Mooncircle, order a copy of the album from Bandcamp.
TRACKLIST
1. Trip
2. Take It Slow
3. Gloom
4. Thinking About You
5. Bokeh
6. Whyarntyou
7. Blueprints
> STREAM ‘STAY TRUE’ ON SOUNDCLOUD
Discover more about Submerse and Project Mooncircle on Inverted Audio.