Hudd is ten years into this, and Eddie Leader really isn’t the same guy that he was at the start. I don’t know if that applies to him personally, but as an artist and producer, his style (along with Hudd’s output) is vastly different – more assured, yeah; less casual, no doubt; and each record representing a few more steps into the dark.
Eddie usually brings friends along when he makes a record, and spreads the credit around liberally. I get the feeling that he could probably get away without crediting them if he really wanted to pose on a pedestal, but he doesn’t, and that’s another of the reasons why Eddie is one of my favorite people, a perennial figure on my List of People That Can Do No Wrong, and it doesn’t look like he’s going to do anything to get off it.
He’s brought two other people I like very much on H45 – Tomson, whose Freerange and Development Music records have had a kinship of sorts with Eddie’s for quite awhile, and of course Chez Damier. Even if you don’t know him, Chez is a man that wants to see you succeed, and his presence, his taste or his talent elevate this record to heights Hudd hadn’t yet achieved. This is Deep House in its purest form, ninety-nine-point-forty-four: soulful vocals, a serpentine groove and a sound that seeks out the walls in every direction and fills the room.
No bullshit: these are two of my favorite people collaborating together with a third I respect a bunch too, and something marvelous came out of those sessions.
