If you've been following the recent remix packages on Prime Numbers, you will not be shocked to learn that Trus'me's third full-length finds the Manchester producer exploring new territory. The dusty drums, modest covers and soulful house infusions of his last two efforts are gone, and in their place is a much more full-blooded and contemporary sound that owes as much to techno as it does anything else. In isolation there are some fantastic returns on this new direction, but as an album from start to finish, there's not quite enough tying it all together.
This is partly due to the sequencing: one minute you're cartwheeling through delightfully ramshackle house ("T'es Un Pute"), the next you're curling a lip to the snarling techno of "I Want You," and the sudden switch can be a little jarring. Then there's the sampling—at times it segues nicely into the next track (see the fruity French phone call of the aforementioned 'T'es Un Pute"), at others it's naff or just plain lazy and spoils an otherwise great track (e.g. the Denzel Washington passage from American Gangster which opens the brutalist technoid stomps of "Somebody"). Maybe this is the sound of a producer caught in two minds, exploring new, floor-focussed territory while not wanting to wholly write off his past.
You could argue that Trus'me is a victim of his own success—just how do you improve on two widely well-received full lengths? Well, the attempted answer in this case is in the production: Treat Me Right is stuffed with delicious analogue lines, mad machines and contrasting surfaces. The bleepy, ravey kinetics of "It's Slow" or the thick and imposing melancholia of "Moonlight Kiss" are prime examples, but the album's real standout is final track "Long Distance." It's a stripped back, lazy but heavyweight stepper à la ASC, doused in blissfully cinematic synths, with dreamlike vocals and drifting horns. More like this would be an interesting prospect indeed. While this particular full-length experiment might have been better served across a couple of EPs, you can't fault the man for stepping outside his comfort zone.
Buy Trus'me - Treat Me Right at
Tracklist: Trus'me - Treat Me Right
01. Hindsight
02. T'es Une Pute
03. I Want You
04. Its Slow
05. Moonlight Kiss
06. Defunct
07. Somebody
08. Long Distance
| 
