(Kitty-Yo/Creative Vibes)

English-born, now Berlin-based producer / vocalist Richard Davis is perhaps best known for his vocal work as part of Swayzak’s live touring line-up and studio incarnation, and this third album from him on Kitty-Yo follows his 2002 record ‘Safety’, which was released on Punkt Music to significant acclaim. Fusing minimal house / techno rhythms in terrain similar to Luomo or a less rhythmically-contorted Akufen with glacial melancholic piano notes, cellos, dobro and Davis’ own emotive soul-tinged vocal delivery, ‘Details’ shows Davis exploring conventional song structures and even a touch of skewed pop, whilst using his vocals as a far more direct emotional and lyrical instrument, rather than as a textural ‘wall of sound’ element as on his previous album.

Opening track ‘Honest With You’ kicks this album off a smooth hypnotic note, with streamlined minimal house beats, clicking micro-snares and burbling electro synth patterns powering their way forward beneath delayed-out piano notes that carry a stray hint of melancholy jazz-soul, Davis’ delicately forlorn vocal intoning “you’re better not knowing” as the skeletal rhythms and murmuring sub-bass tones drift past, before ‘The Truth’ toughens up the percussive house rhythms, whilst winding wavering cello tones around the beats, the epic strings combining with Davis’ phased vocal and some glacial sounding dub-techno effects to create one of this album’s most uplifting dancefloor-oriented moments that still carries with it a hefty touch of sadness, Davis’ repeated refrain of “I love you and that’s the truth” rising up over the jacking rhythms as the strings wash back and forth. ‘World Disappears’ combines shimmering Vadislav Delay-esque minimal dub textures with a clicking techno pulse and icy electro synths to create an icy yet emotive backdrop for Davis’ soul-tinged vocal, the warmth of his gravelly intonations nicely counterpointing the relentlessly precise mechanical rhythms powering along behind them, while ‘Sometime’ ventures closer to streamlined New Wave electro pop with a detached techno pulse, twinkling synths arcing their way around Davis’ effected vocals as the beats punch away into the distance.

‘Others’ drops back from the more uptempo tech-house BPMs, casting spectral-sounding filmic washes of cello and twinkling delicate electronics over a slow backing of crashing drum beats and JJ Cale-esque bluesy guitar bends in one of this album’s few instrumental moments, icy electro textures slowly rising up beneath the live instrumentation, before ‘Hear This’ takes things back up into crisp punching tech-house, zapping effects and shimmering electro synths buzzing their way around a core of looped and effected cello samples, creating a sense of ‘human’ strings trapped inside a relentless machine. Finally, ‘Bring Me Closer’ (previously released as a 12” EP on Swayzak’s 240 Volt label) brings this album to a close.

‘Details’ is a stunning third album from Richard Davis that also marks a considerable step forward in his vocal / minimal tech-house fusions, his vocals stepping firmly into the spotlight in an album that’s considerably more New Wave / synth pop-oriented than his previous efforts. What’s also particularly remarkable here is the deftness with which Davis has counterpointed the icily precise nature of his minimal tech-house productions with the warmth of live instrumental elements, whether graceful cellos, melancholy distant piano tones or bluesy guitar, creating a warm human presence that permeates through all these tracks and amplifies the slow-burning emotion within. One of the best records I’ve heard this year – if there’s any justice in this world, people will check Richard Davis out. Highly recommended.