Wyatt Stevens doesn't sit still for a moment: put him in front of the plates and you'll see that he doesn't leave until security takes him away. His is a passion that comes from deep within and wants to illuminate every nook and cranny of the electronic material derived from the African-American pioneers of the early 1980s. His profiles on the Internet, below moniker MoMA Ready, are full of mixes of all kinds, including a very recent tribute to their community, since February, in America, is the black history month.
But over the course of the year, Wyatt also puts his own music on the market in the form of 12″ and EPs, a flood of material which he then rearranges into summary compilations of what convinced him the most – “Body 25” is the seventh release in a tradition that began in 2018 with “Body 17”. It is not, therefore, a particularly conceptual listen, since the material in question rarely lends itself to the format of the traditional long playingyet the result is curious and pleasant, because MoMA nimbly fries spikes and softness within twenty tracks ready for consumption.
The work therefore follows its usual long-limbed and mutant formula, which starts from the bones of house and techno to offer excerpts jungle (“RENEWED LOVE”), indiscreet glimpses of a cool club (“MEADOWS”), hybrid connections between breakbeats and downtempo (“OPEN DOOR”), acid stomps (“DON'T BLINK”, “TOUCH SENSITIVE”), drum machines dried up (“HALLOWED GROUND”) and some extensions to fashions sample-driven also popular on TikTok (“LATE NIGHT LOVE”, but above all the irresistible shake “RATTLE”).
Sometimes sensuality wins out (“VELOUR”), elsewhere we find ambient drum'n'bass arm in arm in memory of Bentley Rhythm Ace (“TIME IT”, “STARTING OVER”), then another parterre of little sounds outsider (“CATHEDRALS”), even if the emotional peak is reached when the atmosphere becomes sacred in the most sense soulful of the term (“SPIRITUAL SUCCESSOR”, almost a mix between Gonjasufi and Dedekind Cut). In any case, the digital palette is infinite and the borders are always open – an aspect also well illustrated by an old EP composed together with my colleague AceMo, called “AceMoMa”.
Of course, the work remains a purely gut affair that doesn't change the cards on the table, especially when the overall length becomes considerable – just a year ago “Body 24” already offered a generous hour of music. In short, the surprise effect is missing, or even just a unique and particular stance, as found in the almost singer-songwriter works of Galcher Lustwerk, in the roaring jazz ravines of Waajeed or in the more monochromatic hard-nosed Theo Parrish.
But MoMA Ready is still too good to be discovered, gifted as he is with good taste and an innate sense of rhythm, but above all with years of direct experience in the field which allows him to play as he pleases without ever forgetting the listeners gathered under the console. Here he is observing a sky covered by mechanical birds (“IMPERIAL”), getting lost in a robotic rain of drums (“SCANNERS”), finally battling between loungesoul and Idm (“BREAK AWARENESS”), three tracks that conclude the work with a mocking smile and the desire to start over.
02/18/2026
Antonio Santini for SANREMO.FM
