Quentin Harris' new CD No Politics frustrates me. Don¹t get me wrong, I'm feeling it. It's further proof that house music can produce full albums and is not just a single-serving genre. The production is top-to-bottom impeccable.
What irks me is that if you were to remove the driving house beats off of tracks like 'Travelling,' or 'Joy,' they would be all over urban radio. What keeps them off those airwaves is the same thing that makes Quentin Harris a star in the deep house scene: that aforementioned beat that won't quit, and a groove that commands you to dance.
That's what house music is to me: danceable R&B. His reworking of the criminally underappreciated 'My Joy' by Leela James has been heating up floors for a while now, and he gives the same treatment to Tony!Toni!Toné!'s 'Can't Stop.' It's a shame that No Politics will be on every househead's iPod and we will continue nodding our heads and smiling while the world passes by, oblivious to Harris' artistry.
Quentin Harris' No Politics is out now on Strictly Rhythm.