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Chill out/ambient reviews
Aleph Zero Records in Israel run by Shahar and Shulman, has proved to be a high quality chill label, with their first two releases by Bluetech and Shulman. Now they are out with the first compilation with some of their favourite acts from around the world.
Natural Born Chillers (Aleph Zero Records) 2004 (AlephZ03)
1. Ishq Alaya
2. Anahata Shakti
3. Zen Mechanics A New Philosophy
4. Jirah Disconnect
5. Agalactia Monochrome Rainbow Pixie
6. Cosmic Fools Be Yourself
7. J. Viewz Estha
8. Son Kite On Air (Midival Punditz Remix)
9. Omar Faruk Tekbilek & Steve Shehan Ya Bouy (Shulman Remix)
10. Eastern Spirit Under Water (Part One)
First out is a new track by a pioneer in the ambient scene, Ishq (Matt Hillier) from the UK. He has been making music since the early nineties, and released music on Kinetix Records. In 2001 he released a very strong album (Orchid) on Interchill and Dakini Records. Here we get another floating masterpiece. Deep and totally relaxing, with some beautiful vocals. Fantastic as always from this guy. Track 2 is by a new artist called Anahata. This one goes a little bit more experimental, with some weird beats and melodies. Still relaxing and with a bit melancholic vibe. Track 3 is by Zen Mechanics (Wouter Thomassen) who has released some strong full on tracks too. Here we get a pretty tribal track. The tribal drums goes in a relaxed tempo, and we get some beautiful floating sound scapes. You also get some guitar sounds in a quite different way. After a while we get some fat dubby beats too. Perfect for the chill out area. Track 4 is by Jirah (Tim McCall) from the United States. He has released some really refreshing full on music on various labels too. Nice to hear a chilled track by him. Here we get eastern vibes, dubby beats and psychedelic sounds, all going in a pleasant chilled tempo. One of my favourite tracks on this compilation. Track 5 is by Agalactia (Philip Khripkov). This one starts with some beautiful flute and continues into a dubby soundscape, with a lot of Ott inspirations. Also som Irish, happy melodies. Nice one.
Track 6 is by another new artist called Cosmic Fools. This one has a funky guitar. This reminds me a little bit of chilled psychedelic rock from the seventies, but in a kind of new electronic, modern version. We also get some female pop vocals in there, which I find a bit cheesy, but might fit in the right moment. Track 7 is by the talented j.views (Jonathan Dagan), which is one half of Violet Vision
He gives us a very Indian sounding track, with female Indian vocals, sitar and a relaxed down tempo beats. Nice track, but pretty easy digestible. Then we get the On Air track by Swedish Son Kite, which has been played all over the world in several different versions this year. Here we get a remix by someone called Midival Punditz. The vocals you find the original is there, but it is added some sitar and chilled dubby beats instead of the progressive trance drift. Track 9 is originally made by the very respected Omar Faruk Tekbilek and Steve Shehan, but here we get a great remix done by Shulman. Intense, happy, Arabic vibes. The last track is by an artist called Eastern Spirit. This one slows down and goes more floating. A nice finish on the compilation.
This album has some really nice tracks. I missed a bit more of the usual talented chill out producers, but the new artists they have picked for this compilation sure seem to have something going on. Aleph Zero is becoming one of my favourite labels these days.
PK (shivapks@hotmail.com)
