Theo Parrish: Parallel Dimensions Vinyl 2LP

Essential downbeat long-player by Detroit's house music savior. Parallel Dimensions helped to forge a new jazz-infused path for Detroit house music in stark contrast to the city’s storied tendency towards technofuturism, a road that has been heavily trodded by Kyle Hall, Dez Andres, Jay Daniel, Marcellus Pitmann and countless others in the time since. Theo Parrish’s freeform exploration of house textures through repetition and limitation, initially embarked upon on 1998’s First Floor and perfected here, owes more to jazz than traditional Midwestern deep house or techno. After opening with a couple of wonderfully repetitious rollers, things get serious when Theo fires up minor key scorcher “So What Now” and effervescent downbeat jam “Nefarious Strangers”. The second disc contains 13-minute centerpiece “Summertime Is Here” and eternally soulful piano-led deep house number “Violet Green”, perhaps the highlight of the entire session. At a time when many producers were making precision-tuned minimal techno, Theo weaved a hypnotic tapestry of homegrown organic rhythms that still sounds fresh nearly two decades later. While the original vinyl pressing omitted four tracks from the CD version, this double vinyl reissue contains all nine tracks, housed in a stunning new die-cut sleeve designed by Sound Signature’s Thomas Xu with extensive notes from Theo on the back. Recommended.

• black double vinyl pressing
• housed in die-cut sleeve w/ new artwork
• original release year: 2000
• music label: Sound Signature 2017

reviewed by Letters To Theo 06/2017