Album Review: In The Mids

Does anyone remember those Back To Mine compilations? Those carefully curated collections of laid back tunes compiled by ultra-cool DJ’s and musicians of the moment for chilling down with mates at their after-club drinks back at their soho bedsits. Sometimes DJ’s call it ‘morning music’. Well, this album has plenty of that vibe. This is territory pretty familiar to Andrew Spraggon (AKA Sola Rosa) as he’s been at this producing thing for over 25 incredible years. He’s done big party tunes, chilled out headphone numbers and virtually anything in between.

I’ve followed his career all that time and I was always astonished at the brevity and creativity he conjured up on each of his previous 7 albums. From the ‘get-go’ he was mixing and moving us in every direction from nu-disco to LA beach soul to Latin and every slice of world music in between. Listening to his work was always a unique sonic journey. For this new project, Spraggon applies a quieter mode to modern soul, funk and electronica. The heavy club beats have been left behind, well mostly, and the sound is more stripped back. The title phrase, In The Mids, is central to understanding the album’s emotional logic, suggesting being suspended inside a moment, neither arriving nor departing, emotionally and creatively lodged somewhere between certainty and doubt, movement and stillness, light and shadow. It is a concept that seeps into every corner of the record, shaping both its sound and its collaborative spirit.

If you are looking for a theme, then let’s try this: It’s a return to the studio-centric, after years of big live band collabs, primarily in Melbourne. He’s deliberately re‑entering a headspace that he says, associates with the project’s earliest years, writing specifically for the record rather than for the stage. He’s described, in his publicity, this album as a full‑circle moment, reconnecting with the motivations that launched Sola Rosa twenty‑five years ago. You can certainly hear that all over the disc. And on stage it’ll be obvious, too, he said recently on radio, as a ‘producer-led’ project, with a small band in support. That gives the album a distinctive groove‑led, electronically infused soul-infused feel, shaped by late‑night introspection and after-dancefloor culture.

Once again, Spraggon has reached out and found untapped talent to feature. He’s said that he loves working this way – with little‑known talent that’s bursting to be discovered. He’s always blown away by their untapped potential, he said on radio recently. Seven of the ten tracks feature guest vocalists drawn from Aotearoa and Australia. Collaboration becomes a defining structural and emotional thread, allowing different voices to explore variations on the album’s central themes of uncertainty, desire, movement and reflection.

When I first heard the opening track, the instrumental title piece In The Mids, which sets the tone of the album, I immediately thought of Daft Punk’s 2013’s partnership with the legendary Giorgio Moroder, Random Access Memories (RAM). It gently eases the listener into the album’s suspended emotional state with murky low‑end frequencies, soft analogue textures and a slow‑burning momentum. There’s a distinctive 70’s cinematic atmosphere, with disco and funk quietly lurking around the corner. There’s an unmistakable nod to club culture in the pulse and the sonic palette, but the track holds back and resists the temptation to drop the needle and break out the disco ball.

The general schmooze of RAM continues on the Sola Rosa album with Like A Light In The Dark, featuring BRŪDE (Dany Elsafin), an emerging Australian vocalist known for minimal, emotionally focused electronic‑soul aesthetics. BRŪDE – a name that, according to my research, may signal an interest in capturing fleeting emotions, moments, and lived experiences – offers a close, introspective vocal style that prioritises atmosphere and texture rather than overt power. Australian-born with Palestinian roots and currently based in Thailand, they sit in a singular position within the region’s alternative soul and alt‑pop landscape. The song itself unfolds over minimal rhythmic elements and carefully shaped ambient space, creating room for both fragility and warmth to surface. Instead of building toward dramatic peaks or drops, the track reflects the album’s broader commitment to restraint, allowing a quiet sense of momentum to develop as emotional tension lingers just below the surface. Stand back from it and you realise this is a really tender love song. It will work as a radio friendly hit and a simple anniversary song, I think. It has appeal at many levels.

On track two, What You Need, I was reminded of Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo on Daft Punk’s The Game Of Love? (also from RAM). We now head into darker territory. What You Need features Melbourne electronic soul and R&B artist Blush’ko (Blasko Taleski). It was released early as the second album preview, hinting at a moodier side of Sola Rosa, swapping bright hooks for a late‑night ‘feel’, shaped by dance floors and DJ culture. A stripped‑back mid‑tempo four‑on‑the‑floor groove leaves plenty of air in the mix, with Blush’ko’s smooth, sultry vocals hovering softly above. Spraggon has shared that the track came together in a single day – quick, unforced, and guided by the atmosphere Blush’ko brought into the room. His voice is sweet and soulful, and super sexy. That makes this track so smooth. Listen to this and get those goose bumps all over again.

Blush’ko, originally born in Macedonia and now based in Melbourne, first gained international attention in 2017 with the breakout single Another Love, which received support from BBC Radio 6 and Majestic Casual. On What You Need, keys player Jeremy Bennett should get extra credit for his shaping of the stylish 70’s harmonic framework, alongside percussionist Matt Sawyer’s unique texturing, including a rare clay bottle, apparently. Whether that’s true or not, what is crystal-clear is the beauty of this intimate and deliberate headphone quality, perfect for a schmoozy low‑lit dancefloor.

Jupiter signals a clear change in mood and welcomes back Wellington’s own Iva Lamkum, whose earlier collaboration with Andrew Spraggon helped propel Sola Rosa toward wider recognition more than a decade ago. That partnership produced the dancefloor favourite Turn Around (2009), a standout from the Get It Together album. In contrast, Jupiter moves into lighter, more melodic territory, retaining a buoyant, driving energy while feeling more open and radiant. Lamkum’s characterful voice lifts the track throughout, her jazz‑tinged pop delivery creating a strong sense of continuity within the Sola Rosa catalogue. She has described the song as confident and self‑possessed, carrying an “I’m in my era” spirit that champions self‑belief – whether instinctive or hard‑won.

Sonically, Jupiter began life as a sample flip, with Spraggon slicing and stacking chords from a Splice loop. What started as an attempt at a straight four‑on‑the‑floor groove gradually loosened into a rolling, shuffling rhythm. The finished production feels both expansive and confident, equally suited to energising a packed dancefloor or sound-tracking a solitary late‑night drive. Contributions from an all‑star team deepen the result, with Simon Gooding shaping the mix and Yoka‑Zuna’s Kenji Iwamitsu‑Holdaway adding buoyant bass lines and atmospheric guitar layers. After reconnecting online and swapping ideas remotely, Lamkum and Spraggon ultimately brought the track together during a Melbourne catch‑up session – a fitting reunion.

The mood darkens again with Dangerous, featuring Australian multi‑instrumentalist, singer‑songwriter, and producer, Wilson Blackley. Built on tension and restraint, the track strips rhythm back in favour of atmosphere, allowing Blackley’s expressive, soul‑leaning vocal delivery to explore themes of emotional risk and intimacy.

There’s a complete mood change with the addition of a beach hop vibe. Losing Time, the album’s lead single seems absolutely perfect for Raglan‑raised, Berlin‑based artist Muroki. It’s warm, soulful and super funky. A bit of a drag back to Spraggon’s old acid jazz inclinations – all built around an irresistibly bubbly bassline, some 70’s‑inspired blast-horns and a gentle Motown groove. Muroki’s rhythmic phrasing and warm delivery ground the track’s reflective themes, which revolve around the universal tension many New Zealanders feel between staying home and venturing out into the big bad world. Go out and have an adventure – or stay here and lose time? Turns out the lyrics were shaped by conversations between Spraggon and Muroki around that migratory pull, a theme made all the more poignant by Muroki’s own move to Berlin shortly after the song was written.

Simple, sweaty and dripping in smooooooooth, Blush’ko returns on Have It All. This is the whole deal. The tight white t-shirt, slow dance moves, dim lights, candles, red wine. Ouch! Modern Barry White and Marvin Gaye rolled into one. Deeper melodic hooks support lyrics that meditate on desire, satisfaction and quiet longing, continuing the album’s refusal to chase obvious euphoria in favour of something more interior and unresolved. Purrrr!

That reflective mood is sharply contrasted by the upbeat, jazzy 80’s pop of No Time For Love, featuring AKOSIA, also known as Nana Akousa Sabet, a Ghanaian- Australian singer Songwriter who previously worked with Spraggon on the track Tears Roll Down (on his previous album, New Tomorrows, 2025).

Blush’ko’s final turn arrives on We Try And We Lose, his most emotionally vulnerable performance on the record. His vocals are smoky, strained, dark. Starting with a literal ‘light up’ sound bite, the track is almost not there. It’s pared right back – light, spacious beats, synths soaked in reverb, and plenty of room around the vocal so nothing gets in the way of what he’s saying. I really like how that space gives you time to sit with each line as it comes. The song leans into ideas of trying, accepting what you can’t fix, and learning to live with small, quiet failures. It’s a rejection, a break-up, a settling of positions. As the record heads toward the finish, that feeling of being suspended – first hinted at early on – drifts back into focus.

The album closes with How Do You, featuring Wallace, and it feels less like a wrap‑up and more like a gentle exhale. Breathe out and release the tension. Rather than tying everything off neatly, the track lets the emotional thread settle where it wants to. Ex-pat Kiwi singer Wallace (AKA Wallace Golan) has worked with Spraggon before – primarily on his 2020 album Chasing The Sun (that being Closing Statement and the album’s title with Kevin Mark Trail). Fans of Iva Lamkum will probably get a bit confused between the two as she also has a smoky, jazzy vocal delivery which, on this track, floats easily over the shifting grooves of this closer.

There’s no big final statement here, just a sense of being left in the moment. That unfinished feeling fits perfectly with the album’s title and mindset, reaffirming that being “in the mids” isn’t something to escape or fix – it’s simply a place you learn to sit with.

Taken as a whole, I think In The Mids is one of Sola Rosa’s clearest, most focused records. As I said before, it’s a late-night listen. This work shows maturity, recognising where Spraggon is in life, but also maintaining his position as a champion of upcoming talent. His superpower, I think, is finding and nurturing performers and giving them room to grow within his music. It always has been. He’s a master at getting the best from everyone, a real mentor at that, and it always shows.

And rather than attempting some kind of reinvention, Spraggon is more interested in making careful refinements of what he already does so well as a producer. This is a project that values mood, texture and collaboration over immediate trends or the latest gimmicks. Not that he’s ever really done that. So, if you’re wrapping up a big night and heading back to the pad with a few mates for a few nightcaps, light a few candles, drop the lighting, pop on this record, get the cheese on toast bubbling away and settle in for a relaxed, introspective wind-down.

To mark the release, Sola Rosa returns to the touring circuit with the In The Mids Album Release Tour, taking place throughout Aotearoa New Zealand in May and June. Presenting both new material and long‑standing favourites, the live show has evolved alongside the music itself, incorporating newly developed visual and lighting design that reshapes how the songs are experienced. It marks a clear shift in how Sola Rosa occupies the stage, offering a live context unlike anything the project has explored previously, and extending the album’s immersive, in‑between world beyond the studio and into the room.