After having the pleasure of speaking to the man himself prior to this one being released, it felt good to get stuck into the music, and correlate some of the background and passion that came through in that meeting and see how it translated into the final album. Firstly, a!ny record by someone of Ron Trent’s calibre comes with a heavy weight of history (remember ‘Altered States’ came out when he was 14) - especially with a back catalogue as deep as his. But as with the last WARM album, ‘Lift Off’ shows he just continues to evolve, grow and mutate his sound without ever losing touch with that ever present soulful core. It’s always been about making music to move people and with each track on here, he does exactly that.

‘Hot Ice’ eases in gently with a skipping beat over a gently pulsing keyboard line and picked guitar. Badarou is the inspiration, but the end result pays homage without being derivative. Expanding as it moves forward, dropping in a staccato mid section for a little spice. ‘Lift Off’ is a compilation of sorts, taking tunes from the last decade of music production but it hangs together super nicely, springing between the subtle house inflections of ‘Jazz-Funk’ again, you can spot the influence but it’s coming out in a new way.

Expansive moments are part and parcel, and ‘Woman of Color’ eases out the vibes across ten minutes of pure blissed out beats and virtuoso keys. An early morning moment if ever there was one. ‘Sexstrology’ switches again, intensifying the drums to something more hectic with a balance coming from the more controlled guitar on top. Disco pioneer Leroy Burgess shows his bonafides by lending a yearning vocal to ‘Let Me See You Shining’, proper soulful with a gritty edge that takes his voice close to breaking in places. Ron himself weighs in on vox for ‘Just Another Love Song’. The tune takes inspiration from the melting pot of those early days of house, twisting in some new but old drum sounds into a sharply hypnotic elegy.

‘Juice’ lays on the soundtrack influences in a tight motorik vein, before ‘And Fly Away’ pulls in some Balearic touches for a spiritual house number that soars. Guitarist Lars Bartkuhn (check his recent Rush Hour release too) digs out the jams on ‘Street Wave’ showing some serious chops, while Ron keeps the ship steady beneath with a burning organ stab. Finally ‘Her’ marries the breathy spoken words of Harry Dennis (of Jungle Wonz) to a deep as Afro-Latin inflected backing.

With an intrinsic musicality at its core, years of experience in the dance, ‘Lift Off’ just shows how the strong survive.

Lift Off is available now via Rush Hour's Bandcamp and at all good record shops.