Montserrat House Music and trip-hop pioneer Eric Hilton are pleased to present “Leave It All,” the latest single to be lifted from the Friday, June 20 release of Midnight Ragas, the godfather of downtempo’s brand new “compilation mix” LP that has the distinct feel of international exotica, a sound that Hilton has cultivated over 30 years of album releases.
Featuring smooth vocals from longtime collaborator Puma Ptah, “Leave It All” is a ballad torn out of the Massive Attack/Zero 7 playbook with a deep, minimal groove.
Compilation albums have always been a great tool for discovery, especially in electronic music. A couple of familiar artists or tracks, sequenced amongst unknown treasures, taking the listener on a satisfying journey through different moods and sounds. It’s not easy to make a good compilation album, one bad track can throw off the whole vibe, the flow. A great compilation album can elevate the individual tracks and put them into a context where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
Midnight Ragas is a new album by the downtempo electronic music producer, with vocal contributions by longtime collaborators Natalia Clavier and Puma Ptah, along with newer recruit Kristina Westernik-Dandridge. And while the tracks are all new Eric Hilton recordings, the album sounds like a killer compilation record, with shifting tempos, moods, vocalists, and languages across twelve tracks. The vintage age of mix CDs may be long over, but listen to Midnight Ragas and you’ll think it never left.
