Life Is Nice – Candy Flip

The flow of chillout releases continues, with this offering from 28 year old Tel Aviv producer Itay Berger. The music here is generally upbeat dub – positive sounds and chummy grooves rather than anything dark or what one would call truly psychedelic. And I should add that in general, this album has received rave reviews all over the place – but for some reason, I can’t see it. The title track opens the album in nice style, with a cute little topend melody driving it along. Seiko Sub has more of a rasta-reggae peppering, with samples dotted about over a lumpy groove, and Pink The Floyd is a nice piece of unfolding chillout marred by use of drum sounds last witnessed on Soul 2 Soul’s Club Classics Volume 1. This continues to be an issue: Roots of Vibration is an interesting track and has more claim to the ‘dub’ moniker – nice melodies form a morphing groove over the top of heavy bass, though again it’s that synth-TR808 making the drum sounds, and some more attention to them would have made classic chill material. Likewise, the rudimentary drum programming and daft lines on Defence Yourself Jha (sic) and No Mon Control!!! sounds like something from way back in Gary Clail’s record box. Another victim is The Sound Of The Sword, where the drums sound so hollow as to make the rest of the track – mature, intelligent layering creating a workable, 3D atmosphere – sound unfinished. All of which is a bit irritating – I can’t switch off and float downstream with this one, as the sounds just seem to allow that depth. But maybe it’s me, maybe I’m too anal about it all. This album has received amazing reviews, so it must just be something that I can’t grasp. Check out the sound samples, give it a poke, and maybe you’ll find something you’re looking for.

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