Proving the future of dance music is in safe hands, Romare finds cohesively exciting ground on Home

His latest album Home digs deep, carving out a mix of nostalgia, melancholy and toe-tapping grooves to create a unique sweet spot within dance music’s ever growing landscape.

Romare – real name Archie Fairhurst – has always looked to the past to guide his forward-thinking, soulful style of music. His string of previous EPs and critically acclaimed debut album, Love Songs: Part Two, borrowed heavily from blues, rock and funk records taken from his collection to create his signature slow-building, hypnotic house music. This gradual, unrushed approach is still evident on Home, but this time Fairhurst is focusing more on what he can bring to the samples, rather than what the samples can do for him.

His purely sample-based approach has been replaced with a vintage feel of a different kind, developing his use of instruments in his music, both old and new. Home is drenched with the sounds from a charity-shop-found organ, his father’s old 12-string guitar, and his childhood drum kit – all brought together to create a more organic sense of dancefloor nostalgia.

Home solidifies its more sombre moments with tracks such as “Deliverance”, but the album is mainly dedicated to the dance. “Gone” opens up the album with a snowballing electronic bounce, “The River” tips its cap to the much-loved, sample-heavy Romare sound, whilst “Heaven” is a tongue-in-cheek summer slammer, sure to get the most ardent chin-stroker moving.

Fairhurst has delivered his most cohesive record yet, filled with love, sadness, excitement and familiarity – the essential building blocks that helped to fortify the foundations of house music decades ago.