专辑简介

Latest album from Bev Stanton's electro-pop project and the title couldn't be more apt – in many ways for a beats-driven album, this one's really chilled out and the result, across 15 tracks (yes, 15!!) is extremely satisfying but never meandering or boring or one-dimensional. The joy about the album is that each track averages around three minutes, so you get exactly what you want out of one, then move on to the next. The attention to detail, however, is what makes it all work. The opening track is a case in point – deceptively simple base of shuffling electro-percussive and deep bass beats, topped by simple melodies and intoned female vocals, but in there too are layers of cosmic synths, space electronics, more rhythms and the changing shape of a track that really instills itself into your head in a languid, relaxed yet strong and varied fashion, moving into a more powerful rhythm halfway through. “Free Your Mind” opens with drifting electronics and almost acoustic guitar-like melody before the accelerated beats kick in and assorted synth melodies rise up and mix with the guitar-like refrain before another female vocal lifts off with the title as all manner of synth layers combine with samples, more electro-percussive beats and the whole thing clatters along majestically to absolute perfection, a mix of techno and ambience that's got it to a tee. “Walking Away” veritably gallops along, again taking a similar structural yet very different sounding approach, as the musical building blocks are assembled, this time the female vocal possessing more of a sultry quality and the result is a bit like Above & Beyond distilled to their absolute barest essence then reassembled from a more pop-based perspective. “Only For The Bold” is a sliding, gliding slice of electro-based, chilled-out, ambient soul-pop with a suitably sultry and soaring vocal from Lisa Moscatiello on a real song that's got eighties soul-pop mixed with nineties ambient, to perfection. “Surrender” is chunky and ambient, adds electric guitar for extra texture, features a brooding organ riff and is backed by suitably cascading chilled-out electro-percussive beats, as a sliding female vocal soars slowly out with the title repeated to delicious degree, the beats becoming the central focus. “Kiss Me” accelerates the pace on a fast and powerful slice of uptempo chill-out, almost trance-like, as the bass and thudding beats kick in to drive an expanse of cascading electronic melodies on top of which the passionate yearning of female vocal ready to burn, rises up, wanting to thrill and ready to ignite – commercially satisfying too, a fantastic track!! “Really Need” is almost jagged in its sonic construction, jarring melodies against bizarre beats, as almost shouted female vocal interweaves with spoken-word female voice as the love explosion rumbles on to its climax, the tension and attention to detail just totally stunning on a track that should annoy but ends up totally mesmerizing. “Sacrifice” crunches and drives with more of a sizzle and almost riffing as the multi-tracked female vocals unleash a mix of seething and angelic vocals that, set above the fire of the melodies and layers, the addictive rhythms and the melodic electronic flow, produces a track that's positively jaw-dropping in its attention to detail yet, at the same time, totally addictive in an electro-pop fashion. “Invisible” is a solid chilled-out, beats driven ballad with another strong and sultry vocal from Lisa M on a song that rolls along in a suitably multi-layered manner and wraps its tendrils around your heart to delightful and powerful effect, the melodies and beats subtle and varied. Via a short instrumental interlude that rattles along like a horn-driven techno blast, we come to the title track that starts slowly but catches fire in a delight of fast-paced chill-out electro-percussive rhythms, around which wordless female vocal, assorted electronic melodies, more chunky rhythms and suitably spacey and spacious layers are added and subtracted to ear-catching effect, the piece driving along yet with so much happening in the mix, it's really mesmerising. “Sexy” features a beautiful string synth layer to add to the chunky assortment of beats and rhythms, almost like an ambient New Order with a sultry female vocal. “The Way You Move” is more faster paced with a sea of synths awash with melody and rhythm, electro-percussive beats driving the piece along, topped by a soulful male vocal to give the song a different dimension not previously experienced. “Honey On” is a collaboration mix with Orangey and is a smokin' percussive driven comet of a track with all sorts of synths swooping in and out over driving beats and an almost Jamaican lilt to the vocal intonation as the squelchy techno collides head on with a multi-layered melody that mixes magic with muscle. Finally, there's a remix of “Only For The Bold” that transforms it into one beast of a track as monster beats and stabbing melodies provide the backbone for a soaring slice of out-of-orbit soul-ambience in song form that takes you on a supercharged journey to the cosmos. Overall, not a less than riveting track on a thoroughly satisfying and positively timeless album.

Andy Garibaldi (Dead Earnest) 02-11

www.deadearnest.btinternet.co.uk