Roberto Rodriguez, a.k.a. Manolo, is a DJ and Producer from Finland. Starting out as a Deep House producer and club promoter in the 90’s, Roberto is no newbie to the electronic dance music scene. I stumbled across the album, “Dawn” right around the time I was checking in on one of my favorite producers, Jacques Renault, who happened to just have a remix for Roberto’s single “Tell Me”. Renault’s remix has such a sexy groove to it and when I heard Kholi’s vocals pleasantly laid on top of it, I needed to know who this Roberto fellow was and what his deal was. I started doing some research and came across a list of monikers he has gone by in the past. The one that stood out right away was Bermuda, which is the Nu Disco “brain child” of Roberto Rodriguez and Kimmo Oksanen. The duo released a track last summer titled, “Ihasama” on Serenades Records. Combining the talents of a Deep House and a Nu Disco producer a lovely spaced out deep track was born and in my opinion was the creative begining of “Dawn”.
I remember falling in love with House music for the first time. I was just barely 18 years of age, bright-eyed and ready to sweat my 110lb (soaking wet) body into pure rave-tastic ecstasy(pun?). I can’t tell you who was playing, but I can remember the groove I felt when those chicago style synth hits rang in my ears. I smiled so big that it made me wish I was wearing chapstick! Why am I going back and reliving the starting point of what would later be known as my “glory daze”? Roberto Rodriguez’s newest album “Dawn”, is why.
The album is comprised of a variety of throwback House samples, Nu Disco deep synths, and an arsenal of vocals/samples. The first track, Tito, catches you with grand piano sneaking up your spine with a crescendo over the top of your head and a decrescendo over your face like a next day shower. A perfect way to start this journey of this multi-genre influenced mastermind, Roberto Rodriguez. The next track, Show Me, does actually shows you what to expect for the rest of this head bobbing ride. A mixture of deep House, Nu Disco, Funk, 90’s House and his own personal flare. He segues into some serious vocal sampling in the next track “Eternity”. This track has a straight up 90’s jock jam type break down at the 3:20 marker. Listening to this album in it’s entirety gives me the impression that he put a lot of thought into when and where each track should be placed.
AFTER THE JUMP...
