Rodriguez Jr., Reflets (Rodriguez Jr. Evocation Remix)

Rodriguez Jr.'s 'Reflets' has been reworked by the man himself, and this Evocation Remix is a bit of a quiet beauty. Released back in September, it landed on Deutsche Grammophon, which is a real, notable outlet, not some obscure private press, so I won't pretend there's a secret story here. It's just a nice record.

The original was already a delicate thing, but this version strips it back even further, letting the melodic ideas float in a wide, airy space. There's a piano phrase from the original that keeps ghosting through the mix, even after the beat comes in, hanging there under the surface like a half-remembered thought. It's that tension between the gentle and the rhythmic that gives it its pull.

It's not a peak-time bomb, and it doesn't need to be. This is more for the wind-down, when people are still dancing but the room has gotten a little slower, a little more forgiving. It's the track you put on when the night is starting to soften at the edges.