The Children We Were

House of 909: The Children We Were (Pagan)

Is 1998 the year house music makes it to the long playing format with ease and maturity? So far we’ve had 16B, Deep Dish, Chris Gray, Swayzak and Bjorn Torske. Now Pagan mainstays House of 909 step in and blow away nearly all the opposition with the marvellous emotion and crispy perfect production of Children. Soulful vocals adorne the title track and the truly spiritual ‘Beautiful Day’, while the lush arrangement of ‘So Much Love For You’ never betrays the serious theme of the piece. If there has to be a point where they lay their souls bare, it has to be the ‘Tribute’ track to Larry Heard, but, as ‘Children’ proves, the 909ers have seductively dragged house music into the next millennium (RB)