There’s a darkness to 2020’s Taken Away, a reflection perhaps of the police harassment that Kenny Dixon Jr. suffered in 2019, when he was threatened with guns while attempting to enter his own home. The title track with fellow Detroiter Amp Fiddler, starts out as dreamy deep house with warm pads, church organ, P-Funk bass and soul vocals but the police-siren-ridden breakdown, recalling Stevie’s Living For The City, places it firmly in reality. Elsewhere Let Me In is straight-up MPC soul, Let Me Show You Love and Slow Down are both plush and sensual deep house jams, and slow-burning Al Green re-work Do Wrong is haunting church-house. Wistful, bittersweet and forthright, Taken Away is another excellent collection from KDJ. 

Dixon samples the king of sacred/secular combos, Al Green, right out of the gate, so you know what’s going on here. He will not let you forget the foundations of his sound, which are never more than a half block from the church. There is never any reason to listen to Moby’s Play! This half-hour album is such a great combination of American musics, always a little smooshed and soft in Dixon’s hands. Chico DeBarge? On one song? More than enough reason to buy three copies.