Christian Gregory Personal
It looks like Christian Gregory is ready to turn down the lights. The London-based singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and record executive (really) has been working nonstop on his debut LP, and to tease us all a bit he's dropped "Personal," the first official track off the new record.
A mid-tempo burner steeped in vintage drums and deep bass, "Personal" is a yearning love song--a rumination on "taking it to the next level" and just how good that can feel. Gregory produced the track himself along with bandmate and Movement Records co-founder Miles James. If you feel a little Midnight Love (or a lot of Sly Stone) in the track, you're exactly right. Gregory recorded the model MCI tape machine that Gaye used to record "Sexual Healing." The track was also mixed by D'Angelo's favorite engineer, Ben Kane and features drum machines straight out of the 80s. "we were still adding parts to the record in London as Ben was mixing it in New York. Luckily Ben’s pretty patient, so he didn’t mind waiting around for hours while we got carried away with Miles’ collection of old drum machines. The whole track was put together pretty fast," Gregory said.
As "Personal" builds to its sky-high climax, Gregory's voice sounds bigger and better than ever. Its drums keep a low and steady pulse even as synthesizers climb and careen off one another. Hopefully this step up in production value is a glimpse of what's to come when Gregory drops his debut LP later this year. It feels right so far.
