Review

Ron Morelli

Heart Stopper

L.I.E.S. • 2023

House is actually supposed to get your body moving.  The fact that producer and boss of the esteemed label L.I.E.S., Ron Morelli, has given his current album, which is also his first release on his own label, the title »Heart Stopper« sounds a bit like malicious irony.  Morelli’s music is not known for its smooth flow anyway, but puts more emphasis on the heavier, more dangerous side of club music.  The beat is delivered with the delicacy of a die-cut machine, the other electronic elements alternating between brooding industrial rumbling. shimmering digital chrome or the occasional wistful Vangelis-sailing-over-the-skyscraper-skyline.  However, the result can hardly be described as cold.  The music is always emotional, perhaps even maximally emotional in the sense that it bundles conflicting sensations that burst over you as if unfiltered, pummelling you. House in its raw, crude state. »All emotions are caught up«, says a voice (Morelli’s?) at the start of the track »Tangled Trap of Love«.  The heart can come to a standstill with something like that.  But the beat immediately brings it back to life.  Rampant sensuality, rhythmically just barely controlled in its fragile shell.