Handbook is a producer from York, England, who has been releasing music at a steady clip since the beginning of this decade, collaborating with the like of Sol Supreme and The Paramedics along the way. His latest release, an EP by the name of Reminiscence, comes courtesy of French label Cascade Records.

The songs on Reminiscence were all written at a certain point in Handbook’s life when he was very happy, and it comes through in the music on this EP. There are a couple of more introspective moments on the EP, but mostly what you’re getting are big, bright, sunny sounding beats. The drums sound crisp and hit strong, and Handbook flips some great soul samples that will get you dancing and moving. The opening track, “My Girl, My World,” is just some great classic instrumental boom bap that will sound great pumping out of your stereo, and it’s developed enough to hold your attention beyond just that which you’d hear on a beat tape. When you get to the third track, “Mango,” featuring Safe Travel, we get a nice cool down track, without sacrificing the tempo, while Safe Travel is able to lay down some really sweet vocals looking back at a relationship. The result there reminds me of how R&B used to sound in the early ‘90s with that New Jack Swing influence. When Safe Travel comes back two tracks later on “Paris,” he’s joined by emcee Heem, giving the song more of an early ‘00s hip hop/R&B feel to it. These two tracks provide just enough variance to the EP, being surrounded by these bigger uptempo beats that Handbook is throwing down that just sound so joyous.

It’s not anything that unusual, but when something sounds as fun as Reminiscence does, you don’t care that much. Handbook is a good producer, and he’s captured a fun time in his life with this EP.