Sandy Rivera releases The Blackwiz Farm album

There are usually two types of dance producers; those who jump on bandwagons hoping to follow in the wake of the innovators forging a fresh new sound and those who take the counter-intuitive root, shying away from conventional club wisdom to pursue their own path. Very occasionally you get someone who does both.

Having honed his name as the master of vocal house, most famously through Kings of Tomorrow’s ‘Finally’, but also individually with scene-hopping classics ‘Changes’, ‘Freak’ and ‘Whatever’, Sandy Rivera’s latest album, ‘The Blackwiz Farm’, arrives somewhat expectedly as a purely instrumental affair.

At a time when a looped retro vocal snippet is the minimum prerequisite to get spun in the more fashionable basements it’s either a bold move or a serious misjudgement, yet either way it marks a bold, daring move away from the template of classic US house with which his name is most associated.

Featuring tracks ranging from the deep, jazz-chord drenched ‘Aurei 2 2010’ to tougher, techier adventures like ‘Reguide’ and ‘REDIAL’, there’s still an over-riding sense of the musical versatility that Riviera is capable of, just this time stripped to it’s rawest form, and so plenty to appeal to fans.

'The Blackwiz Farm' is released in May. To get a free Sandy Rivera track visit sandyrivera.dj/bonus