Raphi - Keep It Movin'

The vocal sample in Keep It Movin’, a chopped soul snippet looped under a four-on-the-floor kick, is lifted so cleanly from the disco-house playbook that I spent the first listen trying to place where I had heard it. Raphi clearly has range, because this sits miles from his punchier club stuff, reaching instead for a warm, funky, feel-good house groove aimed at the sunnier end of the floor. And it is fine. It is perfectly, professionally fine. The groove bounces, the vocal is catchy, the bassline struts along happily. But I keep waiting for a moment that never comes, a twist, a drop that surprises me, one idea I have not heard executed better a hundred times over by Purple Disco Machine or Dombresky. It is competent filter-house by the numbers, assembled from parts that work because they have always worked. Nothing here is bad. Nothing here is new either, and competent only carries a track so far before you notice how little it is asking of you. Raphi has the chops to make something that grabs me by the collar. This is not that track, it is pleasant background for a barbecue, and honestly the barbecue is doing most of the work.

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