Do You Want More

It's not easy making a disc-length program of house music sound both interesting and stylistically varied, but Robbie Rivera manages to do just that on his debut album for the Ultra label. An internationally celebrated DJ and award-winning producer and remixer, Rivera actually got his start creating original beats and dance tracks in his home studio as a teenager. For his first artist album, he unites with an impressive stable of singers and writers, creating an album that is deeply rooted in the house verities but offers lots of pop hooks and fun rhythmic variations as well. Note, for example, the house-ragga fusion of the title track and "Uptown Girls," both of which feature fine toasting from Karli Owli (and the latter of which returns in a straight dancehall mix at the end of the program), as well as the strangely tuneless but still compelling "Degenerate," which features vocalist Kate Hodges. Hodges also appears on the equally non-melodic and somewhat less successful "Blah Blah Blah," and "It's Like This, It's Like That" is built around a rather played-out vocoder gimmick. Overall, though, Do You Want More? is an impressively well-rounded and fully realized collection. Recommended.