Since 1996
Your Gateway to Music and More from a Christian Perspective
Slow down as you approach the gate, and have your change ready....
Subscribe
About Us
Features
News
Album
Reviews
Movie
Reviews
Concert
Reviews
Top
10
Resources
Time
Wasters
Contact
Us
Artist: Honeyroot
Label: Just Music
Length: 11 tracks / 52 mins
Here is another disc to prove that when ex-chart artists mature and get the chance to create quality music the result can be something special.
Glen Gregory (Ex-Heaven 17 and Band Aid '84) has teamed up again with Keith Lowndes and made a spectacularly chilled collection that is full of sensuously warm electronica with a soul edge.
Ambient music is not known for wit – and with several sung tracks, this is not only instrumental – but naming the first track Goodbye is a fine start. Content to slowly build layers, rather than trying to go anywhere, it immediately provokes comparisons with Air's Moon Safari, and Waves picks out some bass and synth fills straight from the same disc. Later, Every Single Day continues the sound, proving that the simplest ideas can often be the best.
There is more direct borrowing on The Stars and the bubbly Heavy Drops, both of which would be more than at home on Royksopp's plainly seminal Melody AM.
Honeyroot's sensitivity to mood and instant appeal make it easy to see why their work has been used for adverts and soundtracks; Highway really does evoke the feeling of being on the road, while The Drifter's spoken words and switch to guitar give it a slightly rougher, down-at-heel feel.
But it is the serious borrowing that begs questions: are the sound-alike tracks admiring tributes to electronica heroes; are they commercial rip-offs or are they tongue-in-cheek adventures in pushing the limits just short of being sued for plagiarism?
I'll settle for the latter, but either way it is a gorgeous and varied piece of light summer fun that, once on the player, will probably stay well beyond the season.
Derek Walker
