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Jean-Baptiste de Laubier aka Para One, has always been an hyperactive guy: he produced tracks for electro/abstract hip-hop band TTC, started a live electronic project named FuckALoop with Tacteel, toured worldwide, remixed Daft Punk, Bloc Party, Justice, Boys Noize, produced Birdy Nam Nam, Slice & Soda, and Mickey Green, composed the soundtrack for his FEMIS friend Céline Sciamma's movie Water Lilies, directed his own movie, It Was On Earth That I Knew Joy, and created his own imprint Marble together with Surkin and Bobmo. Renowned producer Para One is now back with his sophomore album Passion, featuring Teki Latex, Irfane, and Jaw. This album feels much warmer and more comfortable than his previous work. It's also much poppier and has a fine number of true hits. The Euro-neurotic's tension is still there sometimes, but the muscle softened and the flesh took over. This is basically up-tempo, futuristic R&B with an unmissable, sexy touch: it's teeming with round-shaped sounds, wet textures, and gentle aural strokes. The whole movement is mid-paced and light-headed, and it's clearly a home-listening, or even bed-listening, slow-jam album. The tenderness often gets spaced up or angularized, though. The beats sometimes manage to sound both smooth and rough, easy and intricate, and ghosts of Para's rap training can be heard everywhere. There's also hints of two-step, deep house, IDM, and boogie funk, yet it's a singular, idiosyncratic record, made with an extremely cohesive approach. It's an almost serene effort, and it's certainly generous and loving in the way it unfurls its numerous ideas. This is an album you get deep into, but there's nothing dramatic to it -- it's just unadulterated, voluptuous pleasure.
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