In Herbest Moon, Boss is accompanied by Wataru Nakamichi, aka Wa-Chall. The few 12 inches I got (and reviewed – browse our archive) were a dubby hiphop thing. Here, it’s a bit different. Something we realized is largely a deep house affaire. Boss loves house, loves to dance and he does it very often at Precious Hall where foreign and Japanese DJ’s come to mix. Problem is: House, however naïve (and there is some naivety in this work), is not my thing at all.

The first track to really catch my attention is Between you baby and me, with very discreet percussions, a little bit of guitar, layers of synths and the voice Jerry Chestnuts (who appeared on previous 12” as well as on some Tha Blue Herb tracks). Perfect track for chilling after a night out. Ghost Bass is quite fun, with the rather cheap beats, piano, and the groovy bass. A very happy track. Batty realized is a bit of an oddity here, a very melancholic piano track, pretty close to Joe Hishaisi’s work. We love the silver moonlight is pretty close to the 12”. Some vocals by Chestnuts and Ill-Bosstino rapping. I will never stress enough how good a MC he is. One of my favourites, really. The track in itself has, oddly enough, a strange tango twist (ok, I don’t think anyone would agree with me, but anyway…). They dance alone was on one of the 12” I reviewed. A great tune. Here is what I had to say about it: “They dance alone starts with a nice but nostalgic accordion line and quickly turns out to be quite reggae in its rhythm. Some great keys and guitars bits are added here and there. No vocals but a vision: a man and a woman, dancing far from everyone, inside some sort of cocoon...”. Something we realized has some nice moments, but it’s not the great album I expected. It sounds more like a tribute to Herbest Moon’s heroes than their previous works.

The other album is a dubbier version, called Dubthing we realized. Some of the tracks are remixes of the other CD, some are completely new. Crush the mirro dub is a great track, with once again Chestnuts, and live drums, a bass with a dub sound, great synth / drums break, something very spacey and powerful. Now we got dub is another great cut, thanks to the bass line (courtesy of the ubiquitous Chestnuts). We dub the silver moonlight is a dub version of… you guessed which track. The tango twist is still there, but the emphasis is much more on the beats and the bass. The CD ends in style with 21PM: Brighter Dub, a sort of remix of They dance alone, with vocals by Boss. The beats are even softer than on the first version. The music sounds stripped down, more simple and is probably even more melancholic. A classy ending.

Both CD’s were mastered by House legend François Kevorkian. Let’s end this review with the words of Boss himself: “I dedicate this album to all my friends, all music lovers, and every dancer who dances alone for none but himself. I truly hope that all of you find great companies with whom you can share something special through music, and be able to enjoy your next party in good health”.