DJ Harrison - Tales From The Old Dominion (LP)

Devonne “DJ Harrison” Harris has always felt like the quiet engine behind Richmond’s modern groove. As the keys wizard for Butcher Brown and a solo artist on Stones Throw, he’s built a reputation on pocket, touch, and a crate-digger’s ear. Tales From The Old Dominion, his 2024 full-length, is a love letter to his home state and a reminder that hip-hop, jazz, and funk can share the same living room without stepping on each other’s toes. The title nods to Virginia’s nickname, but the music goes deeper than a postcard. You can hear a whole neighborhood of history in these cuts, from churchy chord voicings to dusty breakbeats that feel like a basement session on a humid summer night in Richmond.

Harrison’s studio instincts are the star. He’s a multi-instrumentalist first, a beatmaker second, and that order matters. The drums hit like they were played, not programmed, with snares that tug a hair behind the beat and cymbals that whisper instead of crash. Keys shimmer in and out, often a Rhodes or a synth patch with just enough grit to catch the light. Bass lines move with musician logic rather than loop logic, so grooves evolve, shift, and breathe. If you know his earlier Stones Throw set HazyMoods, you’ll recognize the patience, the restraint, the way he lets a pocket tell the story. Tales From The Old Dominion just feels richer, like he widened the lens and invited the city in.

The Richmond lineage matters here. This is the same soil that gave us D’Angelo and a pipeline of improvisers who treat groove like a birthright. Harrison is part of that, and he builds on it with a producer’s sense of detail, peeling off tiny percussion flickers and room noise that make the tracks feel lived in. He’s long been connected to Jellowstone, the Richmond studio and collective he helped drive, and you can hear that local ethos of craft first. Nothing is rushed. Nothing is shoved to the front just because it can be. Even the flashiest moments arrive with a head nod and a grin rather than a spotlight.

What I love most is the way he splits the difference between beat tape and band record. The sequencing flows like a night out, from sun-on-the-block instrumentals that could score a front stoop to late hour contemplations when the Rhodes turns tender and the kick gets quiet. Melodies aren’t showy, they’re hummable and sturdy, often built on a short phrase that deepens as it repeats. The little production winks are everywhere, from tape-warmed transitions to ghostly background vocals tucked so far back you catch them on the third listen. It’s the kind of record that rewards repeat plays, because the obvious pleasures land fast, then the micro-details keep paying interest.

You don’t come to a DJ Harrison album for features or spectacle. You come for feel. Even so, the record never stalls. He knows how to shape space, letting a drum fill or a left-hand bass answer become the hook. It’s jazz-adjacent in harmony, hip-hop in posture, funk in the body. Put it next to Butcher Brown’s clean-lined fusion and you notice how personal the palette is here. A little dirt on the snare, a pinch of ring on the toms, a synth that curls its lip when it hits a low note. He paints character into the sound itself.

If you’re crate hunting, Tales From The Old Dominion vinyl is a no brainer. Stones Throw tends to treat pressings with care, and this music thrives on the tactile. The low end feels right under a stylus, the Rhodes glow sits perfectly in that analog space. It’s also a gateway record, the one you hand a friend who’s into Dilla or Madlib and wants to swing toward live players. People ask all the time where to start with DJ Harrison vinyl, and this sits comfortably beside HazyMoods on the shelf. If you like to buy DJ Harrison records online, keep an eye on restocks, because his LPs do slip in and out. For anyone building a section of DJ Harrison albums on vinyl, this is the spine.

I can picture it now, filed at the listening station in a Melbourne record store, the needle dropping while someone decides which groove fits their weekend. It also works if you’re scrolling through vinyl records Australia sites late at night, looking for something that feels human at every level. Tales From The Old Dominion is that kind of record, crafted by a musician who hears history as rhythm and turns hometown pride into songs that move.