There’s nothing new about blowing the dust off an old genre and presenting it as something fresh. For Paloma Faith, Michael Bublé and just about any recent 90s-referencing guitar band, it’s the basis of an entire career. Thankfully singer-producer Seven Davis Jr also updates the styles he is reviving, dragging a mixture of funk swagger and 90s house into the 21st century on his debut. He recalls Prince on No Worries, while Fighters tiptoes around race issues and violence over sparse percussion and deep, ooh-ing backing vocals. When he sidesteps pop-song structures altogether, as on openers Imagination and Freedom, he moves into full-blown Flying Lotus-style genre-bending territory. Sunday Morning’s bouncing bassline and looping vocal refrain warrant repeated listens, but Davis still sounds best when sticking to the instrumental mode of his thumping 2014 PARTY EP. Nonetheless, Universes is a warm, danceable introduction to an artist with plenty of sonic tricks up his sleeve.
