Of all the Clone sublabels that sprung up after it briefly bit the dust a little while back, Clone Crown Ltd. is unquestionably the smoothest. Keeping it slow and sleazy, with plenty of heft in the low-end, the series engages in the best sort of selective memory: CCL gives us exactly the ear candy we want out of 1984 and leaves everything else well alone in the past. The mysterious Reggie Blount's Hard Times EP, the third record in the series, helped define the sort of sex they're after, and his triumphant return on CCL's seventh transmission doesn't disappoint, even if you've heard all his tricks before.
Wherever Blount calls home, his heart is obviously someplace sunny on "Shining Star," with carefree vocals sharing the spotlight with a synth solo that more or less lasts for the track's duration. "It's Hot" may as well be "Shining Star"'s afterparty, with instrumentation unchanged and a riled-up crowd chatting throughout verses. Things get serious, if only a little, for "Hey," where angular bass a la Italians Do It Better comforts emoting synthesizers. Taking one last chance to lather on the old-school flourishes before the runout, Blount breaks out the vocoder for "Racingcar." These are four derivative jams, to be certain, and none quite rises to the standards of Italians or Dam-Funk, but good luck denying any of their pleasures.
Buy Reggie Blount - Shining Star at
Tracklist: Reggie Blount - Shining Star
 A1 Racecar
A2 Hey
B1 Shining Star
B2 Its Hot
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