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Eddie Rockerz’ Til The Break Of Dawn Jamz Vol. 1

Sixty-six records for the hours after midnight, sequenced by someone who understands that the point of a late-night set is patience.

Til The Break Of Dawn Jamz Vol. 1

The quiet-storm set is one of the hardest formats to get right, because the failure mode is so obvious: string enough slow songs together and you produce wallpaper. What keeps this one alive across sixty-six tracks is that it refuses to stay in one decade, and it keeps changing the kind of intimacy on offer.

There are seventies Philadelphia ballads next to 2020 R&B, smooth jazz instrumentals next to neo-soul, and the transitions work because the sequencing is matching feel rather than tempo or era.

What to listen for

The Isley Brothers' "Don't Say Goodnight" in both parts is the centrepiece of the older material — eight minutes of Ernie Isley's guitar and Ronald's falsetto that essentially defines the format.

Maxwell's "This Woman's Work" is the bravest inclusion. Taking a Kate Bush song into that register should not work, and it is one of the great vocal performances of the nineties.

Aaliyah's "At Your Best" is itself an Isley cover, which makes its placement here a nice piece of internal logic.

Bilal's "Soul Sista" and Trina Broussard's "Inside My Love" are the neo-soul anchors, and the latter — a Minnie Riperton song — is one of the best covers of that whole era.

Harold Melvin's "If You Don't Know Me by Now" with Teddy Pendergrass and The Stylistics' "Break up to Make Up" are the Philadelphia foundations.

Howard Hewett's "Just To Keep You Satisfied" is the deep cut for people who know their Marvin Gaye, and Michael McDonald and Toni Braxton's "Stop, Look, Listen" is the unlikely pairing that comes off.

Earth, Wind & Fire's "Reasons" is here, which is simply obligatory.

SiR's "He Deserves Your Love", Summer Walker's "Girls Need Love" and Ella Mai's "Close" hold up the modern end.

Go deeper

The quiet storm format was invented at WHUR in Washington in 1976 by Melvin Lindsey, and it is worth knowing that it began as a radio programming idea rather than a genre. Everything about the pacing of a set like this descends from that decision.

For the canon: Smokey Robinson's A Quiet Storm, anything by Teddy Pendergrass, and The Isley Brothers' Between the Sheets.

How to use it: the set is designed for duration rather than for peaks, and it works best started late and left running. The sequencing keeps the energy almost flat on purpose — nothing here interrupts — which is the whole craft of the format and the reason a set like this outlasts a playlist of slow favourites thrown together.

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