- Part of what made Will Long's Long Trax 1 so special was DJ Sprinkles. She overdubbed each of Long's originals, which added a beautiful soulfulness to his raw and bare-bones approach. Without those reworks, the LP would have been a different story. This is the one we get on Long Trax 2, the Japan-based artist's follow up, which no longer features DJ Sprinkles, nor her label, Comatonse. Now, suitable to its somber personality, Long's music arrives alone.
Since Long Trax 1, Long's music has changed less than the world around it. The first installment arrived just before the 2016 US presidential election. Looking back, its morose mood and use of vocal samples as political critique were apt; the album captured an unspoken pessimism, when a large part of American society still believed that slogans like "Yes We Can" and "Stronger Together" would make liberal democracy hold. On Long Trax 2, whose first cut samples the voice of a young Barack Obama, Long's messages about cultural stasis can seem even more poignant.
Long's approach to house is so minimal that it feels as fragile as a shell. Each track, built on the same kind of muted drums and gently sighing chords, distinguishes itself from the next only with its quiet use of vocals. They appear out of the mist and vanish just as quickly, reciting lines from history that carry both anger and apathy. "Should we pretend we have a colorblind society?" Obama asks on the opener. "I just think it's part of capitalism to promote racism," says Richard Pryor on "That's The Way It Goes." On "You Know?," a man can't remember what he's angry about.
Whether you like Long Trax 2 depends in part on how much you hear this message. Some might say the album's production work is flat, repetitive, uninventive—which, for the most part, is true. This is where DJ Sprinkles came in handy on Long Trax 1. She took Long's moods and enriched them with a sense of groove and musicality. Long Trax 2 runs the risk of monotony instead. But that seems to be Long's message: we're stuck, sorrow repeating without end.
Tracklist01. Nothing's Changed
02. You Know?
03. The Struggles, The Difficulties
04. No More
05. That's The Way It Goes
06. We Tend To Forget