After releasing two bass house collaborations in 2019, Tchami just delivered his first solo release since the end of 2018. The godfather of future house finally returns to his roots and gives us some refreshing summery vibes in this release. But is this track living up to the hype surrounding his first solo release in 10 months?
I'm a die-hard Tchami fan. I have not only seen his live shows multiple times but have also flown to other cities for single night performances of his. Tracks like "Adieu" and "Untrue" remain on constant rotation, so the expectations for "Rainforest," along with his other 2019 outputs, were mistakenly set too high.
For all intents and purposes, "Rainforest" is a nice track –clean production with various splatters of shimmering synths and nostalgic video-game melodies. Sadly, the track falls flat on the vocal delivery which creates a tired predictable element that weakens it. Repetitive vocals are essential to house music but Tchami's usual witty use of vocals to push songs to a whole new level, as shown in "Deus" and "The Sermon," is what sets him apart from the endless sea of blanket house producers, yet it's nowhere to be found. The synths in this track will surely get ravers cutting shapes in festivals but this is not the one that would make you take your phone out to Shazam.
We are approaching the end of 2019, and Tchami has not yet released anything particularly exciting. His two other releases this year, "Omega" and "Made In France," are both collaborations and sound, well, generic. The Revelations EP in 2017 and No Redemption EP in 2018 together demonstrate Tchami's artistic visions with both bold textures and deep brooding bass. And each EP on their own is one of the strongest annual output in the electronic music scene – but what's going on in 2019?
Tchami's library of releases remains groundbreaking and engaging. And after finishing this review, I will still listen to his catalog every day and buy tickets to his next show in LA, but hopefully, the seasoned veteran can surround himself with hard honest feedback. As a passionate fan and supporter, I can only hope this proud artist can take a second to reassess this generic path that he's dangerously dipping into and rather dazzle us once more with something unique and earnest again before the end of this year.
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