Compilation albums have always been a great tool for discovery, especially in electronic music. A couple of familiar artists or tracks, sequenced amongst unknown treasures, taking the listener on a satisfying journey through different moods and sounds. It’s not easy to make a good compilation album, one bad track can throw off the whole vibe, the flow. A great compilation album can elevate the individual tracks and put them into a context where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
With "Midnight Ragas”, Eric Hilton has made a great compilation album. Except not really. We’ll explain.
Midnight Ragas is a new album by the downtempo electronic music producer, with vocal contributions by longtime collaborators Natalia Clavier and Puma Ptah, along with newer recruit Kristina Westernik-Dandridge. And while the tracks are all new Eric Hilton recordings, the album sounds like a killer compilation record, with shifting tempos, moods, vocalists, and languages across twelve tracks. The vintage age of mix CDs may be long over, but listen to Midnight Ragas and you’ll think it never left.
Eric Hilton has plenty of experience with compilation albums. Tracks by Thievery Corporation, the downtempo combo Hilton co-founded in 1995, have been featured on over 600 mix CDs, according to music database website Discogs. "I loved compilations back in the day. You bought them to get turned on to new sounds, or you liked the artist compiling it. Midnight Ragas was not conceptualized as a compilation - the album is a moment of eclecticism,” says Hilton. I changed studios and got to work, invited friends to participate, just making music together. This album is a result of the first 6 months of recording - and because the process was so collaborative, it ended up being a mix of styles. I loved working like that this time,” says the producer, who usually produces music as a solo endeavor.
With three different vocalists and lyrics sung in French, Spanish and English, Midnight Ragas has the distinct feel of international exotica, a sound that Hilton has cultivated over 30 years of album releases. "Languages are like different settings on a synth, they have a timbre and delivery that either work or they don’t within a song. Working with Natalia, Puma and Kristina was so great on this project, because I had all these vocal flavors to choose from. There are instrumentals on the record alongside the vocal tracks which vary the mood and pacing. To create an experience, you need to have moments in the song sequence that have a relational mood of some kind, maybe for three tracks, and then slip into another mood. Different languages and singers, changing tempos and sounds - there’s a lot of that on this record, and that’s why it sounds like a compilation album, even though it’s entirely my music,” says Hilton.
So then, what does this compilation mix album by one artist sound like?
The opener, "Life In the Deep End” hits like an even more laid-back Khruangbin, soundtracking a vintage Billy Dee Williams Malt liquor advert. Next up: "Leave it all”, a ballad in the Massive Attack/Zero 7 wheelhouse - minimal groove, smart sounding, sounds like a single. Puma Ptah pours it on smooth here. “Puma is such a great singer with a deep personality; I think this track highlights him better than anything we’ve done together,” asserts Hilton. Track three is "Ja ne t’aime plus" (I don’t love you anymore) - imagine it’s 1970 and you’re Alain Delon or Catherine Deneuve, driving a light gold Ferrari Daytona along the coast from Cannes to Monaco. Clavier provides the vocal accompaniment, singing for Hilton in French for the first time. The third song is "Behind my Eyes" - 70’s crime flick meets ambient drum & bass. "I love the wildness of this track, we really nailed the production on this one, it’s tough and sets the tone for the next few tracks,” says Hilton.
"All I Want” also features Ptah; the track is an ass-shaking, purple crushed velvet groove, hard but smoooooth. Track 6, "Burkina Faso” will be a standout track for longtime Thievery fans, a tough D.C. bounce and "you know what time it is” feel. Things start to shift with the title track (there’s that moment in the song sequence Hilton mentioned)- seven songs in and things start sounding mysterious on “Midnight Raga”. “Traditional ragas are improvisational but repetitive; this song somehow is repetitive but doesn’t hit you that way,” opines the producer. Next up: "Sol Interior" - with gorgeous vocals from Clavier amid Ipcress File/John Barry twinkles. It sounds a bit like a great lost track from Air’s classic debut “Moon Safari”.
The album closes out with a trifecta of late-night slow burners. “Madame Asha” is classic trip hop, a nod to legendary Indian American vocalist Asha Puthli. “L’Ocean" - stays on the 90’s trip hop wavelength; this is a standout for Hilton, as good as any track of the era/genre. And it all comes down to "Beautiful Moment" - unquestionably the most romantic track on the album. Vocals by Westernik-Dandridge summon thoughts of the late summer evening sun, slow kisses and dew drops on agave leaves. It’s as perfect a sonic representation of apres-release afterglow that you’re likely to hear.
And then it’s all over, sigh...unless you’ve put your CD player/turntable/streamer on auto repeat, which is the right idea. “Midnight Ragas” is the compilation album that isn’t; perhaps that’s why it’s so listenable, and so unforgettable.
