13. Rhythm & SoundRhythm & Sound
I love all of the Rhythm & Sound records, but this is the one I’ve found myself coming back to the most. The first Rhythm & Sound track I ever heard was probably the one with Tikiman on Richie Hawtin’s Decks, EFX & 909 [‘Never Tell You (Version)’], but I don’t know if that was what got me into Rhythm & Sound per se, or if I was just aware of one track at that point. This was in around 2008 when I was still at university, and I probably fully got into them when I moved to Berlin around a year or so later.
It’s hard to articulate why this music is so special because you just know it when you hear it. There’s so little going on, but it just feels so alive. It’s a big warm hug of a record. ‘Smile’ is one of my favourite tracks on it for sure, and ‘Mango Drive’ was maybe one of the first Rhythm & Sound tunes I listened to. It’s a compilation of their tracks, but it works as a fully fledged album. It’s something that I can’t see myself ever stopping listening to, and it’s soundtracked so many important periods of my adult life. It’s become very meaningful to me in that way.
