4 out of 5

Label: WéMè Records

Produced by: Rehab333

Based on rehab333’s first outing with WéMè / Postal Code Records, the 9-track Reharsals starts off in familiar territory: tried and true electro breaks with rehab’s preference for “softer” synths doing some predictable raveups atop. It’s the kind of electro you’d find poking around the fringes of the 90s Rephlex stable, discovering artists who are doing solid, if slightly unremarkable, things.

But the kind of sidesteps Rehab hinted at on DR0000 are given more room to grow on Reharsals: the intimacy of track R3 immediately encourages a closer listen, and the recording starts to wiggle its way off the normal path, making the harsher breaks on R4 a pretty awesome sudden shift. From hereon out, Rehab333 keeps pushing on norms, though still leashed to them in a way where everything is allowed to be fun but exciting: you recognize the sounds and beats and samples, but there’s curiosity as to what spice is going to be added atop.

The misspelled album title, along with the seeming analog nature of the recording, ends up being a cherry on top: some tracks begin with seconds of a rough cut, like Rehab needs to dial things in before getting going. The recording itself has a really in-your-ears, direct-to-tape vibe that adds to the excitement, like the artist is jamming on things that are developed to 95%, and they want to see how you react to them to get it to 100%, mimicking the way the album warms up as it goes along.