Whether it be deepest croak or shining note, the sound of the human voice is a unique element in any music. My ears first met Danny on 1997's Tourism, and later we lounged lazily together under the marvelous backdrop of last year's Global Underground Athens. On these earlier releases, I began to discern a love for the human voice that is reaffirmed on Back to Mine.

Taking a far more chillout tone than his earlier releases, Back to Mine opens unhurriedly, letting the voices of soul divas beckon you in. Yello's "To the Sea" begins the slowburn collection of R&B-flavored; beats that, while taking cues from old-school house, offers something more-- not the least of which is Danny's superb arrangement of these tracks. Where Global Underground Athens exuded anthemic power suggestive of the swells and eddies of a dancing crowd, this record has a stronger lounge quality. It's dance music, to be sure, but it also offers a number of tracks you can sit around and listen to before the beats build.

Back to Mine is a tease-- it sweeps from the heavily distorted beats of Bang the Party's "Bang Bang You're Mine" to the made-for-radio (circa 1976) "Keep On Walkin'" by CeCe Peniston. And Funk? And Latin? And Soul? And yes, it's a good-vibe dance album that feels no shame in looking backward. Sure, the disco sensibility of nubian vocals and dance may repel some, but the vocals here are supine, rich and mated with dark beats that vary from claustrophobic and heavy, to minimal and airy. And Tenaglia employs not samples, but actual lyrics. They serve as the record's common thread, a seemingly forbidden entity among DJs of late.

Back to Mine gives you a Danny having fun, creating a good-listening dance record that could never be called "intense," but instead bathes in the glory of voice, recalling the R&B; roots of house with well-deserved pride.

-James P. Wisdom