JAY DENHAM
The Truth
DB143
Disko B 2008
09 Tracks. 52mins32 secs

For a man who has been involved in the Detroit techno scene since the movement’s infancy, Jay Denham has had to make do with far less of the limelight than some of the city’s more famous sonic elder statesman. While producers like Derrick May, Juan Atkins and Kevin Saunderson are now spoken of in hallowed, almost breathless tones, Denham’s music is probably better known among the furrow-browed aficionados of the scene than the casual music fan. Yet, in the years since he first appeared on Transmat, he has if nothing else been prolific – both as a DJ and, with numberless twelve inches to his name, as a producer.

But his techno sound, and in particular his latest release The Truth, pose a familiar question for listeners today: does the music of the Detroit scene continue to live and grow, or is it now just a series of mothballed museum pieces better left to historians of the 1980s? Listening to this record, it is hard to feel too optimistic, although Denham’s melodious and occasionally very engaging record is certainly not a failure. Tracks like Sweet Jesus offer warmth and charm, while The Long Way and Whispers are quiet, nuanced slices of ambience that show Denham’s subtler talents. But too often he allows things to fall flat, even where the ideas are initially engaging. Opener The Truth is a hyperactive slab of French disco that promises much but doesn’t really go anywhere. And the same is true of Come On, whose raunchy sense of ecstasy fades as the music fails to develop.

Denham is clearly capable of delivering the tunes, as these tracks show, but he too frequently allows the track to play out on autopilot while the opening refrain repeats itself into infinity. And whilst this method might work well in the confines of a DJ set, it again and again leaves the listener cold here. There is also too much dead wood on the album, with tracks like Electrostatic and Heaven Only Knows struggling to make it to lift-off during the six minutes they each play out for. And there is again the question of the sound of this record: it could easily have been written ten or fifteen years ago. And whilst it is in its way honourable to plough on with a musical style in isolation of passing trends, in listening to this record it is hard not to wonder what real relevance this music has to us any more.

2.5/5

Jay Denham (MySpace) | Disko B

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