Having collaborated on the tracks Press Reset and Infinitely, back in 2022 and 2023, respectively, Julian Garnett and Chicago house legend Harry Dennis now team up for a third hit. Released on Garnett’s JuJu Muzik, Counting Clouds finds Dennis set adrift on memory bliss. Looking up to the heavens. Glimpsing faces in the changing skies. Remembering friends and lovers. Contemplating the passing of time. His poetry delivered in the unmistakable tones of the classics he recorded as a member of Jungle Wonz and The It. 

The EP contains 4 mixes and Garnett’s Silver Lining shake is the first. Musical, melodic, percussive and very Larry Heard-like. Mark Hand’s Machine Funk makeover is muted, more jazzy. The beat skipping beneath added diva snippets. Rude Boy Rupert’s Nimbus number also gently leans into the jazz, but combines some slightly broken syncopation with a booming sound system bass-line. Building toward big piano chords, brass fanfares, beatnik congas and fusion keyboard solos, it’s a Ballistic Brothers-esque mix of multiple black music genres. A sonic tonic that already summons summer. 

The pick for me, though, is Rob Redford and Damian Charles’ Jungle Sounds. The title tipping its hat to both Dennis’ former outfit and also Paul Thomas and Adam Goldstone’s seminal New York-based label. The latter is totally apt as the track’s tumbling, tribal tom toms and pan-pipe flavoured keys recall those favoured by Joe Claussell, Stan Hatzakis and Tony Confusione’s early `90s sides as Instant House released on the imprint. Deep, spiritual and with space-y sound effects that have ancient meet future, I was also reminded of Hayen Andre’s sublime Subculture. 

If you’re in the UK you can order Harry Dennis’ Counting Clouds directly from JuJu Muzik.