Raffertie is the latest in a line of dance music producers to move to subtle and grown-up R&B-ish music. It feels strange in the London artist's case, however, because at the beginning of Benjamin Stefanski's career he was behind some of the zaniest dubstep of the genre's late-2000s boom. Tunes like "7th Dimension" made colourful pyrotechnics out of dubstep's skank, and even as he moved to house his penchant for larger-than-life sound design stuck around. But after founding his own Super label and then signing to Ninja Tune in 2011 (not to mention graduating from a conservatory), every new missive showed him gradually quieting his weirder impulses. And then, a few months ago, it peaked-- Raffertie dropped "Build Me Up", a quivering crooner, appearing on the single's sleeve all dolled up and proper. His long-awaited debut album, Sleep of Reason, strolls down the same path, an album of reflective songwriting and carefully contained outbursts.
Unlike so many other former dance artists, songcraft isn't a hurdle for Stefanski. He's always had an ear for melody; he discovered AlunaGeorge, after all. His vocal tunes are blessed with simple, hooky phrases, lines that seem to curl around corners with a luxurious momentum. It's enough to save a track like "Rain", which comes close to suffocating under its own soporific weight thanks to some sonics lifted straight from the xx. That song succeeds because Stefanski's voice-- a workmanlike vehicle-- is up front and clear, emphasizing the smoothness of his songwriting.
Elsewhere on the album, Stefanski duels with his own atmosphere: the conflicting impulse at the heart of his musical development. "Build Me Up" competes with its instrumental, and elsewhere Raffertie's delicate melodies are trampled underfoot by the remnants of his over-the-top musical persona. It's when he aims for for something bolder than quiet storm R&B that he most succeeds. On "Principle Action", his voice gets swallowed by a buzzing wall of sound, but it's meant to, and it's breathtaking. "Gagging Order", on the other hand, has a catchy theme buried somewhere beneath its array of fidgety sounds, but I'd be hard-pressed to recover it.
Carrying over some tracks from past Ninja Tune EPs, Sleep of Reason isn't a straight pop album; its best moments pulse with the nuclear energy of those early Planet Mu EPs. "One Track Mind" is the highlight, violently exploding arpeggios and all, and Raffertie's evolution into an expert arranger means he's always calm and in control. Skippy garage makes a welcome appearance propping up tender ballad "Touching", and quieter moments like "Undertow" are fascinating vignettes of intricate digital build-up and decay. But in his consummately cautious approach, he loses some of his personality; moments like "Last Train Home" and the maudlin duet "Trust" feel like they could have been made by anyone.
Sleep of Reason ends in a flurry of emotion with the closing couplet "Black Rainbow" and "Back of The Line", where Raffertie controls waves of distortion and searing climax as if he were parting the sea. "Back of The Line" is especially affecting, where he warbles the choked voice of a man stuck behind his machines, constantly trying not to be dwarfed by their immensity. That's what most of Sleep of Reason sounds like-- it's an uneven but captivating album that sounds like an artist still looking for his stride and trying to balance between two extremes. He does it better than some of his peers, but he still has a while to go yet.
