Gemini: “Day Dreaming” (1997) From 1994 until the turn of the millennium, Gemini, aka Spencer Kincy, was one of the most revered figures in the second wave of Chicago house. Then he disappeared. Rumors proliferated in his absence. A decade ago, when a reporter tracked him down, he was homeless and apparently struggling with mental illness, even as a fresh crop of reissues, edits, and bootlegs was boosting his popularity among a new generation of clubbers and DJs. Gemini doesn’t have any real hits to his name; he was so prolific, varied, and consistently innovative that his tracks functioned more like seeds, sprouting new sounds from the depths of other DJs’ record boxes. But “Day Dreaming,” from his 1997 Peacefrog EP On the North Star With Gemini, is as concentrated an encapsulation of his talents as you could ask for. The beat shuffles with the most casual kind of grace. The chords splash like rose water. And is that lead riff a keyboard or a pod of singing dolphins? For all the tragic intrigue of Kincy’s own life, on “Day Dreaming,” he expresses the mysteries of existence in the gentlest, most beatific terms. -Philip Sherburne (pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/the-best-house-tracks-of-the-90s/)
