Reagenz's Playtime is a collaboration between resurgent house producer Move D (David Moufang) and Spacetime Continuum's Jonah Sharp. One of a spate of late-2009 electronic records to get caught up in the end-of-year wash (see also: Redshape's The Dance Paradox), Playtime caps an impressive year for Germany's Workshop label with a no-seams mix of gliding house music and ambient composition. This is Moufang's second fruitful collaboration in as many years-- 2008's Benjamin Brunn collaboration, *Songs From the Beehive, *offered bright, brainy techno-- and it's logical to ascribe most of Playtime's success to him (Sharp has been mostly silent since the mid-1990s).
Although the duo met at an Autechre show, drawing connections to that band is a red herring: Playtime sits lightly and never intentionally perturbs. Its 80 minutes race by as the duo balances dense, low-tension keyboard epics with graceful, urban-gray mood pieces. The record opens with "Dinner With Q", a playful disco thrum that features a classic juking bassline and splashes of guitar. Over the course of 13 minutes, Moufang stretches his legs into spacey arpeggios and a beatless, acoustic interlude as the track careens toward the sort of athletic house music that appeared on his mid-90s classic Kunststoff.
The comparatively short "Shibuya Day" cools the heat that "Dinner With Q" and the lounge-y "DJ Friendly" generate, drifting lightly until a careful beat inches in. "Confidence" earns its name; "Keep Building" is traditionally polemic house music, with Black Jazz Consortium's Fred P providing husky mantras that never get too pushy ("You just gotta keep moving forward... one step at a time"). "Freerotation" is perhaps the album's one misfire, five minutes of echoing patter that mainly serves as an intro for Playtime's behemoth closer. Swallowing the album's final 24 minutes, "Du Bist Hier!" ("You Are Here!") never seems its length as its heartbeat rhythm trolls through decaying keyboards.
It isn't novelty that carries Playtime-- plenty of "deep house" toes the line between ambient and dance music-- but rather execution. After a decade of mostly lauded house production, Moufang has spent the last two years choosing collaborators to help him stretch his melodies until they're soft and threadbare. Playtime is comfortable and lived-in, a veteran's work than never tires or lapses into old habits.
