1995 Livin' Joy: Dreamer

The first time 'Dreamer' crossed my path I heard it as an elaborate remix of A Guy Called Gerald's acid house classic 'Voodoo Ray', but I was being lazy. Yes there's a surface similarity in the bone on bone sparseness of their percussive beats, but 'Ray's chilled paranoia from the fridge is a world away from the red blood euphoria of 'Dreamer'. True, most of that euphoria comes from a barnstormer of a lead vocal from New Yorker Janice Robinson that 'Dreamer's house groove is content to play second fiddle to, but in truth it didn't have a lot of choice; her so goddamn happy blast would have drowned out the industrial clang of Nine Inch Nails. Italian House is not my most favoured of genres, but 'Dreamer' appeals via its 'stand alone' quality, a shot of aural Prozac that's guaranteed to gee up my mood. Which is good enough reason for me to give anything the thumbs up.