Though marketed as an
electronic album,
house music producer
Charles Webster has produced a work that far outreaches the normal bounds of
electronica.
Webster could be more appropriately called a
singer/songwriter -- if he sang. Instead, he recruits the vocal abilities of
Del St Joseph,
Terra Diva, and
Massive Attack vocalist
Sara Jay to put lyrics to his dense and moody songs, whose tones are closer to melancholy
indie performers like
Spain and
His Name Is Alive sometimes and
soul-riddled
R&B at others.
Webster does display uncanny studio expertise, creating currents of synthesized bass tones, key washes, and gentle percussion loops which drift around the ankles of the more prominent vocalizations, and, most strikingly,
Mark Sheridan's immaculately plucked guitar on
"Sweet Butterfly" and
"Be No-One." A lonely muted trumpet calls out on
"I'm Falling," while the deep pride of
"Put Your Hurt Aside" recalls the best moments on
Massive Attack's
Blue Lines. In fact, this entire collection rests comfortably somewhere between that seminal
trip-hop album and the
singer/songwriter musings of
Beth Orton. Not a bad place to be. ~ Joshua Glazer
