The Other People Place, Lifestyles of the Laptop Café [Warp]
The greatest of the seven album "storms" that aqua-funk legends Drexciya scattered over an array of labels, guises, and enigmatic conceptual frameworks, James Stinson's yearning, house-affected solo album is beset with the mismatch of human intimacy and depersonalized internet culture. A record – as the cover image suggests – of lush, open sounds and spare, confined interiors, Lifestyles' purring keyboards and ripe organ chords set a reflective, hypnotic tone, though its splashing mid-tempo rhythms have all the intensity of Drexciya's coursing electro. And there were the vocals – often just a repeated, plainspoken refrain, they tell of romance and sunshine, but hint at brooding discontent and even loneliness. More touching and human than anything we'd then expected from this secretive techno warrior, it made Stinson's untimely passing a year later all the more heartbreaking.
This capsule review appeared as part of Resident Advisor’s retrospective Top 100 Albums of the '00s feature.