Jimi Tenor - Deep Sound Learning (1993 - 2000) - dLP/dCD - Bureau B
For a brief spell in the late '90s, Finnish lounge-house groover and all-round prolific composer Lassi Lehto, aka Jimi Tenor scored something of a hip hit with the single Outta Space and subsequent parent-album Organism. Both issued on Warp Records, Tenor's breezy blend of electronic exotica struck a chord with clubbing beatniks and bedroom smokers alike.
After five album's worth of eclectic material and little in the way of recognition outside of the niche media, Tenor detached himself from the label and headed back to his own homeland label Puu, leaving behind a vault of varied tracks that have sat gathering digital dust for the best part of 20 years - until now. German imprint Bureau B and the man himself follow up have curated a wholesome selection of tunes that certainly deserve to be something more than just unreleased rarities left on a shelf.
Following on from 2020's NY/HEL/BARCA compilation of early works and his recent afrique-inspired studio set Aulos, Deep Sound Learning covers his productive '90s period on Warp. With one ear firmly locked into downtempo and the other on future-jazz, Tenor's ouevre covers a broad spectrum that shares a musical lineage with the likes of Dimitri From Paris, St Germain and Lemon Jelly. Perhaps brassier and hazier, tracks like Bondage, Exotic House of the Beloved, Sambakontu, O-Sex and Another Space Travel actually sound pretty timeless with their breathy blend of house, tribal, Latin and soul influences - it's T-Funk in all but name.
Things get a little freer and avant-gardist towards the latter end of this assemblage with full-on distorted 303 action on Super Beat and far-out sax blowing on the woozy Plan 9, but you cannot accuse Jimi Tenor of being unadventurous or lazy - the man has been issuing around 5 releases a year, on average, all of them explorative and rarely less than engaging.
7/10