Monolithic Sure Can Build a Mood with Baby Hold Me Close
Usually, when you make a house track, you have to pick your lane. You can have your moody, sulfurous, slow-cooking type song that builds a mood like it’s nobody’s business, or… Or you can have your upbeat banger that makes people wanna dance. That’s true for most people, but Monolithic isn’t most people, and I’ll be damned if - once again - he hasn’t managed to have his cake and eat it too.
Following a string of sticky singles and remixes - including one of my favorite tracks of the year, the wavy It’s Okay to Feel That Way - the NY-based producer is back with Baby Hold Me Close. The fine-tuned track achieves an almost impossible balance of melancholic atmosphere and catchy grooves.
The production has a disarming simplicity, but the devil is the details and there isn’t a drum sound or a synth-y nuance that escapes Monolithic’s maniacal pursuit of perfection here. The mix is so tight, it could dance on the head of a pin, and yet it retains the lo-fi breeziness of his earlier work, including his underground hit Alone With You.
I’m not sure it’s even right to call it lo-fi even. It’s just a bit of future nostalgia that left-field dance music producers have explored so well in recent years.
Apropos of nothing, Baby Hold Me Close really makes the argument for vocal samples in house music production. The simple phrase repeated over and over gives that R&B chic and adds its share of depth to beat.
When I listen to this track, the only thing I want to hold close is the repeat button. Am I right folks?