I first heard of Don-e thirteen years ago, in 1992, when he was a much hyped new act on 4′th & Broadway with the release of his debut single Love Makes The World Go Round and the album Unbreakable that followed soon. 1992 wasn’t such a bad year after all with Don-e’s debut and releases by The Watergates (Never Gonna Give You Up on Bump’n'Hustle), Mass Order (Maybe One Day on Columbia), Mr. Fingers (Introduction on MCA) Robyn Springer (Makin Moves on Cardiac), Jody Watley (I’m The One You Need on MCA) or Out Of The Blue feat. Marlon Saunders (Lover Caravan on Flatbush) to name just a few…ah, my personal good ol’ days.
Don-e got the chance to do a second album (Changing Seasons) on 4′th & B’way and then vanished from the scene. If you’re an avid reader of liner notes you certainly have discovered him as writer and producer for artists like Nu Colours, Deni Hines, Shaun Escoffery, Mica Paris, Beverley Knight, Lynden David Hall, or Rahsaan Patterson in the meantime. After a long hiatus he is finally back under his own name with a new album for Dome Records, who seem to focus on British artists again with Carleen Anderson’s Soul Providence and Incognito’s upcoming Eleven albums.
Like Don-e’s first two albums this is a self-produced/written/played journey into his musical world with his own blend of black music. Listening to Try This unveils that Don-e really has his own sound and doesn’t seem to give a damn about what’s hip right now. If you know his previous works you’ll recognize most of the tunes as Don-e songs at once like the midtempo soulful Walk In My Shoes.
One of the highlights is No Reason, his collaboration with Omar. This song is pure Brit soul bliss and they should really do a whole album together. I Do is an beautiful ballad with some charming vocoder effects à la Roger Troutman. More highlights come with the mellow, acoustic Let Me Be Yours, the hypnotic One More Time and the acapella See What I See.
Variety is added with the funky Keep On Luvin U, the urban inspired All We Need (with rapper Grimm…well actually not what I need as you may know my reservations about featured rappers but the song works well within the album context) and the uptempo Try This. Don-e also introduces Lornette Ford with the summery vibes of Slow.
And make sure you listen to the comical Dropped Recordz (an interlude between track 16 and 17). This track is surely influenced by Don-e’s past since it’s message is that a musician might as well sign to Dropped Recordz because they’ll get dropped anyway.
It’s good to have Don-e back with a strong album that features excellent songs and kudos to Dome Records for bringing back one of the UK’s finest black music artist.

Tracklisting of Try This: 1. Sickest Style/ 2. Walk In My Shoes/ 3. Bus Stop/ 4. No Reason - Don-e & Omar/ 5. Keep On Luvin’ U/ 6. Slow - Don-e & Lornette Ford/ 7. I Do/ 8. All We Need - Don-e & Grim/ 9. Rising/ 10. One More Time/ 11. Let Me Be Yours/ 12. Hott Honey/ 13. How I Feel/ 14. See What I See/ 15. Lonely/ 16. Try This/ 17. UK Black (hidden bonus track) | released 2005 by Atomic Dread Productions /Dome Records

For more infos visit domerecords.co.uk and don-emusic.co.uk and download the video Slow here.

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