Danilo Plessow is an old soul. The first half of the 26-year old house producer's best-known alias, Motor City Drum Ensemble, is a reference to both his Stuttgart hometown (where the automobile was invented) and Detroit's rich dance music history. (The "drum ensemble" part refers to his sizable collection of Roland TR- drum machines.) In interviews, he claims that he doesn't listen to much new music, and despite citing hip-hop as a formative influence, believes that the genre has been creatively stagnant "since Madlib and J Dilla." In general, he prefers older sounds, and 2010's Raw Cuts Vol. 1 was testament to that preference. It was an impressively lush collection that included Plessow's series of "Raw Cuts" singles from the previous few years, consisting almost entirely of drum machines and vinyl-ripped samples of old soul, jazz, and funk breaks. A reverent synthetic patchwork of the past, Raw Cuts Vol. 1 was as notable for the warm melodic euphoria it exuded as it was for the conceit that birthed the initial run of singles.
As with many producers, Plessow's reconfiguration of dusty sounds relies on a liberal attitude to sampling; In a 2011 interview with Resident Advisor, he described his sampling philosophy as "take everything," while also expressing a desire to move past that approach. That wish was apparent on that year's "L.O.V.E." single, released in tandem with Plessow's eclectic, leg-stretching contribution to !K7's DJ-Kicks mix series. A floor-centric cut tucked within a mix that didn't so much play with the notions of house as it did almost totally jettison the genre, "L.O.V.E." mixed sultry vocal samples with wavy synths and a circular bass line provided by Plessow himself. It was a fine taste of what was to come, as MCDE's new EP, Send a Prayer, picks up where "L.O.V.E." left off. Its four tracks suggest that Plessow has little intention of completely discarding the warm, crackly thump that defines his winning sound-- but that doesn't mean he's not interested in toying with that sound's confines.
The track that opens the EP's A-side, "Send a Prayer Pt. 1", is a neat trick of sorts. At first, it sounds fit for Raw Cuts: A decaying vocal sample moans just below brittle percussion as the backbeat enters without warning, accompanied by warm, bleating tones. The beat picks up, and a jazz break with a broken weathervane saxophone line wanders into the mix, accompanied by background crowd chatter and rattling percussion-- then, the track continues unabated, denying the big payoff that such an intrusion suggests. The payoffs on Raw Cuts Vol. 1 were abundant, a by-product of Plessow's masterful sense of pacing; when the big twist is removed, as it is here, there's little else left but a sense of simmering unease.
"Send a Prayer Pt. 2" and the EP's closer, "SP 11", also resemble Raw Cuts' aesthetic. The former's patient, conversational persistence clings so close that it could easily be mistaken for a forgotten cut from that collection, while "SP 11"'s skipping hi-hat and eardrum-rubbing bass thud sound menacing, with dollops of synth glop adding some saucer-eyed bliss to cut the tension. B-side opener "The Stranger" breaks the furthest from the pack; it's also the EP's sole inert moment, a pile of percussive rhythms with no real melodic anchor. The results amount to little more than a showcase for Plessow's ample hardware collection.
It's appropriate that Send a Prayer's weakest moments stray the furthest from Raw Cuts' weathered crate-digging giddiness. While it would be unreasonable to expect that Plessow just creatively jog in place, it's clear that Raw Cuts was the result of someone arriving at an immensely enjoyable sound that sounded relatively fresh, despite its debts to the past. Listening chronologically to the run of non-Raw Cuts singles that saw release between 2007 and 2009, you can hear Plessow starting from somewhere stylistically pro forma within the house genre and slowly finding his own footing, a sound that he could conceivably call his own. Send a Prayer is the first bulk release of new Motor City Drum Ensemble material in nearly three years, and Plessow's stated that he prefers to work at his own pace when it comes to releasing new output. So who knows when we'll hear from him again under this guise, but if this EP is any indication, his next move will be worth anticipating.
