Persian Questions

[Emotional] Especial returns to the music of Peter Reilly aka Persian, with a second EP diving into his extensive catalogue to celebrate this cult artist and evaluate his recent decision to retire from music production. For over 20 years Reilly has been an exemplary electronic producer, a producer’s producer, a DJs producer, releasing over 50 EPs that crossed genres, from Breaks to Digidub, Electro to Garage, House to Jungle and on and on. If this release is to act as an epitaph, then its exploration of Reilly’s wonderful programming, sampling and understanding of emotions is laid bare. Spread across a series of self-released edits hidden within limited run EPs, Questions appeared as something akin to beats interludes, across numerous releases over the last 10 years. Bringing the best versions together on one EP, Questions 1, 2, 5, 3 and 7 have been re-edited, extended and sequenced into a continuous mix especially for this finale. Starting with the ambient breaks of Questions 1, this is a Balearic beginning where bubbling acid meets haunting refrain, before segueing effortlessly into the sunrise breaks of Questions 2. A nod to Carl Craig’s classic Incognito remix, the solo keys add a touch of jazz to a glide by shooting melody. Side 2 rises. Question 5 heralds a half stepper Dub bassline riding the Amen breaks, the now familiar Brando sample, a wormhole in your brain that ties the EP together, joining the dots as strings float skywards, allowing Questions 3 break it all back down. Herbie Handcock inspired Funk Boogie beat, shouts out to his own Existence To Resistance label, leads to the pure ambient closing of Questions 7. A showcase again of Persian’s multi-genre dexterity and maybe, just maybe brings an influential music chapter to a close.