Kaskade

Kaskade’s debut album is proper soulful deep house and broken beats. Kaskade, aka Ryan Raddon, isn’t afraid to get a little emotional, and that’s a good thing. Guest vocalists Joslyn and Amy Michelle turn in great performances that elevate this album above standard deep house. Tracks like "Meditation to the Groove,” "Seeing Julie” and "My Time” are not just good, they are actual songs, a rare thing of late in house music. Most of the songs contain the usual elements of deep house ¯ reverberating bass lines, organ keys and repetitive drums. Saxophones appear of course, as do welcomed trumpet solos. Many of the tracks are bass heavy ¯ the bass on "Seeing Julie” throbs in a particularly pleasant and unique way as Michelle sings along. There are few broken beat tracks, such as "This Rhythm” and "Tonight” and even a successful imitation of Prince’s ’80s tracks in "Get Busy.” On a track-by-track basis, or taken as an entire album, this is very good stuff.