There are very few things you can absolutely count on when the summer starts here in New Mexico. First, it’s gonna be hot. Really hot. We are, after all, in the desert. Second, there’s gonna be house music everywhere. I mean, everywhere.
It’s like when we harvest Chile in the fall and it has that same smell no matter where you go. We’re just a part of it. House music in the summer, Chile in the fall. It’s a New Mexico thing.
Nobody understands that more than Timm Reynolds aka the Rev. I’ve written about the Rev multiple times, and I don’t feel any shame in admitting that because he’s as much a part of New Mexico House music as anyone.
As a DJ for nearly three decades he has managed to bridge the gap between the crews, and cliques, and companies that populate our culture in a way that always puts House Music first. Because of that, he has inspired the work of other artists, so consistently, that I feel it’s fair I should share some words on his art.
Specifically, his latest release ‘Stay Hot’, out now on Traxsource, and all platforms in the near future. Here’s a link.
The song is listed as Jackin House, and although I hear that jackin bounce to it, what I like about this one is that in the 4 minutes and 45 seconds of its duration, I hear at least three different styles converged into one song.
It has that pop and shuffle to it that all jackin house has, very similar to another track the Rev released called ‘Oasis’. Sort of like futuristic funk, but mellow and groovy. Letting you ease into the beat instead of throwing you in.
House music is different than the other styles in one specific light, and that is the fact that when you hear it live you don’t build and build and build, say like with techno, or something.
You just catch it. And ride it wherever it takes you, and you can’t go back once it starts, because that’s just not how House Music is. It’s always looking forward, while still carrying the weight of what was left behind.
Then about a minute and a half in there’s a switch up I just didn’t see coming. A futuristic synth drop layered in with sounds that frankly, I didn’t even know the Rev had in him, and I freakin love it. I am a huge fan of music with synths in them thanks to the work of bands like Depeche Mode and Dystopian Cinema like Bladerunner.
Putting that style right in the middle of a house song, while still maintaining that house groove is not so easy to do, and yet the Rev does it here with ease. A true sign of how far he has grown as an artist.
I don’t think the Rev in the past would have done this, and yet that’s what’s so good about it. Who the artist is now is not who the artist was when they began. Isn’t that true for us all, though?
There’s also another style in this track, and it’s very much a tribute to that original house sound, in that there’s this sample of a track, and I just can’t put my finger on it. I know it will come to me one day, probably when I’m on the dancefloor, lost in the beat, but not today.
I can’t recall it today, and that’s the nature of house music, I suppose. It’s going to always keep you moving and reminding you of something you’ve seen or heard or felt before, and yet when the time comes to remember, you just can’t. It’s a melancholy reminder that not all memories last forever.
It’s very much reminiscent of an earlier track the Rev did in the past that was a sample of an Isley brother’s song I love so much, called ‘Jackin For Sheets’. A balance between old school sounds and new school styles.
I don’t feel my point is just about Nostalgia, though, as you can feel his efforts to bridge the sounds, and perhaps the people that represent them.
It wants to be played in the warehouse, like it wants to be played in the mountains, like it even wants it be played in the nightclub. I expect you’ll hear this track a lot this summer and rightfully so.
I also feel a direct connection between this and another recent release of the Rev’s called ‘Rainbow Sherbet’. This eternal optimism that house gives us, and yet still providing a subtle rhythmic bounce to it at the same time. House music wants you to keep going. It wants you to endure.
It’s definitely my wish for the Rev to read these words and to see them as a sign to continue on with the art he’s making now. I can sense him telling an overall story, and I feel this track is connected to something bigger than just a release. My hope is that we can hear the entirety of the Rev’s original work in a live setting one day, or at the least a DJ set of only his original music.
Moving forward there are many chances to see the Rev in person all summer long as he is playing a special tribute set to the late great DJ Ohm alongside two House legends in DJ Eldon and Gene Farris on August 5th, and he’s also playing a great local house music show on July 23rd called House Proud, with two other great DJ’s I’d love to write about soon.
All summer long the desert skies of New Mexico will be filled with beautiful stars and the sounds of House Music. House Music that has been kept going by the efforts of DJ’s like The Rev. But now its time to grow and be something better. Something with a bigger story to tell. Something we can always go back to.
Please, buy this track, bump it at home, play it at shows, but most of all, support the culture. Much love to the Rev on this one, and I’ve only got one question left.
What’s next?
See you guys in that summer heat.
Ourdancefloor.net 