Kaya Project 'Firedance' Review

Artist: Kaya Project

Title: Firedance

Label: Interchill

Released: 13^th May 2014

Seb Taylor the mastermind behind the Kaya Project has released his music in many guises, from the synthetic chill of Hibernation and the global lounge of Angel Tears to Bio-Tones tech-house re-mixes to name a few. It seems whichever, style organic or synthetic he turns his mind to it works well. This is the fifth album released on Interchill in his Kaya Project guise, the last album 'Desert Phase' travelled across continents with field or rather desert recordings, reflected with the music from country blues to the sounds of Arabia.

The album launch for 'Firedance' took place recently at one of London's premier chill spots the InSpiral Lounge with support from Whirl-Y-Gig's Monkey Pilot. Having seen it advertised on my last visit I quite fancied going but was sadly unable to make it. So making do with the recorded audio I'll press on.

This album features the sultry vocals of two previous collaborators, Irina Mikhailova and Natasha Chamberlain as well as Pearce van der Merwe on Flute. Seb's production takes us on a journey through down-tempo Arabic numbers and chilled strings to upbeat tribal percussion. The title track 'Firedance' for example is a smouldering hot pot of Arabesque strings, African chants, percussion and Gypsy violin balanced beautifully with chilled breakdowns. Despite the quantity of sounds and styles input into the track it flows far smoother than it sounds. With 'Todero' on the other hand all I can picture in my minds eye is a swirling dervish dance carried along by Irina's lucid voice which while dominating your attention the accompanying music adds but never distracts. While 'The Phoenix Rises' takes a step back into chilled guitar strings with an almost orchestral feel in places a gorgeous backdrop for Natasha's wonderfully ethereal tones.

This album will definitely appeal to fans of previous Kaya Project releases, Irinas own music and that of other projects such as Star Sounds Orchestra and Lumin and possibly Vas, Dead Can Dance or Irfan.

Review by Woodzee.

Links

http://www.kayaproject.com/

http://www.interchill.com/

Eccodek - Remixtasy Review

Artist: Eccodek

Release: Remixtasy

Label: Big Mind

Release Date: Sept 2011

Canadian artist Andrew McPherson’s Eccodek project has only recently come to my attention. Like many of the artists we feature this project combines the artists work with input from a variety of singers and musicians from around the globe.

Remixtasy as the title suggests is an album that features 11 re-mixed tracks from previous releases. Having not heard the original pieces I can only share my listening experience of this particular release and although, I’m familiar with many of the artists assigned with these re-mixes such as Transglobal Underground, Adham Shaikh, EarthRise SoundSystem & Dubmatix the tracks that stand out to me are actually re-mixed by the unfamiliar artists.

The album begins with Jeff Stott’s soothing re-mix of “Behind The Mask” where the music and vocals are not dissimilar to the sound of his Lumin project which fuses traditional Eastern folk and modern electronica along with the exquisite vocals of Irina Mikhailova. A firm favourite of mine is Four80Easts re-mix of “In This Drum A Secret”. It’s one of those down-tempo tracks that lift’s you off your backside and on to the dance floor. It seems to combine Ibizan chill & acidic psy-dub with African vocals and I was mildly surprised to discover they are a Canadian Nu-Jazz duo. While I’m also quite partial to Andrew’s own Stepper’s dub mix of Bizuru Dub which sits somewhere between dub-tech and dub reggae, again featuring African vocals.

To summarise this release combines traditional Asian and African music with modern dubby or funky electronica. Personally, I found the album a pleasure to listen to at home. While the Four80East re-mix is top notch, one I would like to hear out and will be playing for some time to come.

Reviewed by Woodzee