Search - Robert Owens :: Night-Time Stories

Deeper than Deep

Gideon | Italy | 03/25/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"He is back. After more than two decades spent in the dance underground - and eighteen years after his début Lp - Robert Owens, THE VOICE of house music, releases an album which sounds like the definitive statement in the genre.



NIGHT-TIME STORIES is no collection of stray tracks, but a work of new material composed with a host of British and German producers, among whom we find Ian Pooley, Charles Webster, Marc Romboy and, on one occasion, Mr Owens himself.



A 78-minute opus, this cd will relentlessly send shivers of pleasure / panic down your spine. The impact of Mr Owens' voice reveals itself as soon as you press 'play', and in no time it will start subverting your received ideas about soul and dance music. What we have here - as is always the case with the greats - is a singer of devastating subtlety, his voice slinking its way into your subconscious via velvety /icy tones that can soar and swoop in the space of a single word, sculpting with surgical precision every nuance of its meaning.



A deep spiritual tension powers every track. The lyrics - intelligently non-specific as far as gender is concerned - strive to resolve a dissociation of sensibility (T.S.Eliot docet) which lies at the core of the narrator's soul. This man has to rebuild his faith in life after the collapse of every certainty he may have had at the start of his journey. There are no songs about sex or love here, just its debris; there is no religious consolation either, only the awareness of being alone in the world, so that you can only count on yourself to survive. "Try you" sings Mr Owens on NEVER GIVE UP, and this is what happens track after track, exorcism after exorcism, his satin /rough voice clamans in deserto for signs of life. But such is the power of REAL house music: it can lead you to find your way out of dark times, helping you to regain your balance in the face of events. By MERGING, the penultimate track, we get to witness the rebirth of a fragmented soul, as the narrator finally becomes ONE again. The healing has begun. Lessons have been learnt. Life is once again an open road, even if death is always looming.



Given this deep spiritual search, the music joins in to mirror it perfectly. Shimmering, rubbery grooves marry jazzy touches in a pristine synthesis of garage, old-skool jack, gospel shadings and euro-house. An overall tone of control permeates the work, albeit expressed with the slinkiest grace ever to appear on a dance album. As for the tracks, it is very difficult to mention any, such is the sheer quality of this music; if you need an entry point try the compact garage of HAPPY, probably the most moving song ever written about happiness, or the 10-minute PRESS ON, a tunnel of hypno-house that will lead you to the end of the night.



In short, NIGHT-TIME STORIES can be termed nothing less than a masterpiece. One that only Mr Robert Owens could provide, a singer who should be as revered and adored as Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye and Otis Redding.



Start now."