Ritz - 44 (2020)

Portuguese producer Ricardo Cardoso AKA Ritz returns to his regular home of Piston Recordings with his second long-player, which follows on the heels of 2019's 'Meditation'. Across its 12 tracks, '44' finds him exploring a range of deep house styles: jazz-fuelled opener could have been lifted straight off Vanessa Daou's 'Zipless' album, 'Ecstatic' is cool and dubby, while 'No Way Of Coming Out' has a blissed-out, deep prog feel. Generally speaking, though, it's classic Chi-Town deepness that's the most notable influence, and fans of Messrs Trent, Damier, Heard and Parrish will find much to enjoy here.