Moodymann – Taken Away
Label:
KDJ – KDJ-49
Format:
3 x Vinyl, 12", Album
Sticker on cellophane:
This LP includes the unreleased original version of "Taken Away" and the bonus album "Demos, Cassettes, ADATs & Floppies Pt.1" (apart from the track 'Home').
Country:
US
Released:
Apr 2021
Genre:
Electronic, Funk / Soul
Style:
Beatdown, Deep House, Funk, Soul
Tracklist
A1 Do Wrong 4:34
A2 Taken Away
Keyboards [Additional Keys] – Amp Fiddler
Producer – KDJ
6:31
B1 I'm Already Hi 1:32
B2 Let Me In
Edited By – KDJ
Producer – Dez Andres
Vocals – Moodymann, Sky Covington
3:42
B3 Goodbye Everybody
Producer – KDJ
3:56
C1 Let Me Show You Love
Beats – Seiji
Economides
Vocals [Additional] – Guevara
Beats – Seiji
4:21
C2 Slow Down
Producer – KDJ
Vocals – Chico DeBarge, Diviniti
5:11
D1 Stay A While
Producer – KDJ
Vocals – Chico DeBarge
4:04
D2 Taken Away (Original)
Keyboards – Amp Fiddler
6:55
E1 TiredOfLooking4UTimeForU2ComeLooking4Me 4:10
E2 We Wanna Party 4:41
E3 Cotton 4 Daze 3:13
F1 Pullup Selecta 2:49
F2 Thought About It 3:26
F3 I Got Werk 5:21
Companies, etc.
Lacquer Cut at – Trutone Mastering Labs
Credits
Artwork – Richard Wilson (35)
Graphic Design – Amy Bennick
Lacquer Cut By – Carl*
Mastered By – Witt (3)
Photography By – Tracy Washington (2)
Producer – Kenny Dixon Jr.
Recorded By – Kenny Dixon Jr.
Notes
Recorded and produced by KDJ in Detroit, except for track C1.
Tracks C2 & D1 recorded at United Sound Systems, Detroit.
Mastered by Witt at Sick Notes.
Barcode and Other Identifiers
Matrix / Runout: Truetone Mastering NY Carl 1-21
( pitchfork) " Kenny Dixon, Jr., better known as deep-house hero Moodymann, whose career spans 25-plus years and an influence that can’t be overstated. Dixon was sitting in a van outside his own building in Detroit when someone reported “suspicious behavior” and the cops rolled up with their chaos. He made it out alive. Echoes of the conflict are all over his new album.
Taken Away dispenses immersion therapy like last year’s woozy beaut, Sinner, and stinks of George Clinton like 2014’s self-titled long-player. But there’s often an ache where the fun used to be. There’s funk, in both senses of the world. “Goodbye Everybody” summons Lowell Fulson’s “Prison Bound,” swapping the original’s bluesy stomp for a roiling swamp of what sound like detuned bells and percussion that hisses like tasers. It’s closer in spirit to Erykah Badu than, say, boompty house. The crisp breaks and comfy swing of “Let Me In” could be legit Badu, or even Mary J., but Moodymann counters the grace of the (uncredited) female voices with spite: “You’ve never been a good soul to anyone/Especially me.”
Some tracks are plush. “Let Me Show You Love” is maybe the most flat-out gorgeous thing he’s made to date, a velveteen expanse of sparkling melodies and little sequin-bright effects and blissed-out whispers. The purple chords and compressed tumble of “I Need Another ____” are horny as hell, but the “relief” that Dixon and his female companions call out for sounds as material and existential as it is sexual. “Just Stay a While” lights up the room with a fiber-optic bassline and irresistible beat; a quiet-storm interlude blows through every now and then, increasing the humidity without relieving it. If the vocals were glamorous, the song could be Luomo. Instead the sentiment is: “My back’s against the wall.” And not because nobody’s dancing. “Slow Down” does just that, buoyed by overlapping vocal vamps and a warm piano riff, and it’s just the sound of summer, complete with kids enjoying themselves. Until sirens interrupt."
