It’s been three years since we last heard from Melbourne producer Amin Payne, who had a pretty busy and successful run in the early to mid-2000s, releasing music with labels like Cascade, and working alongside other artists like Silent Jay and Ben Bada Boom. Now, after this quiet period, he has reemerged with a new side project called Teymori, which he’s using to explore house music. With a self-titled debut EP under this name, he now starts a new chapter in his career.

The first thing that hit me when listening to this EP is that Payne is not trying out house music because it might be interesting or different, he’s doing this because he loves it. It comes through not just in how well all of these tracks are composed, but in how much joy is pulsing through the beats. These grooves are sophisticated, with a lot of attention paid to all the minor details that allow you to listen to the music over and over and pick up on something new each time through. Even more important, though, is the fact that these grooves are absolutely undeniable. If you’re going to venture into house music, you have to make music people can dance to, and it’s impossible to sit still while listening to Teymori. For this EP, Payne brought it a lot of live instrumentation, enlisting Horatio Luna on bass, Silent Jay on Rhodes and sax, Close Counters on Rhodes and synthesizer, Michael Cooper on Rhodes and synthesizer, Felix the Jazzcat on trumpet, Blasko on vocals, Julian Steel on percussion, and Allan McConnell on Rhodes. Each musician gets to add their own little bit of flavor and add this live energy to the proceedings to make it feel even more like a party, but then it falls on Payne to make sure it all comes together and flows well from start to finish. He proves himself more than up to the task, creating this great EP that is not just fun and danceable, but also manages to work in everything from Latin and African influences to the more traditional R&B and disco influences as well.

When Amin Payne broke his silence after a couple of years, only to announce a new alias that was moving on from his past work in instrumental hip hop and exploring house music, I honestly had no idea how it was about to play out. Now that it’s here, I can’t imagine a better debut for this project. The Teymori EP is sophisticated, adventurous, tons of fun to listen to, and will keep you dancing through these hot summer nights.