Freefall – Compact

If you’re familiar with Lish’s earlier output, prepare for a departure from their previous gnarlier vibe. It’s headed more in a morning progressive trance direction, with touches of sunshine fullon, which some will be disappointed by. Sea Side Hills kicks things off sounding a little like a more tribal son kite. Smooth 130bpm runs are layered nicely, with a groove that just bumbles along deliriously well. Fat breaks in the middle, and then a glorious launch out into proper-job daylight progressive. Up next is Outsiders, and I really love this one, every bit as warm and characteristic as freq’s warmest, most memorable work. The gentle melodies fit well together, and they don’t get too over the top, which is just what you want to coax people back into dancing in the morning. The BPMs are picking up with Sunday Muse and, for me, this one sounds a lot better bitched down to the lower 130’s like the two preceeding tracks. Whatever, it layers nicely and has some gorgeous moments once again. The groove is subtle and infectious, only really marred by the final section’s over-reliance on quite a dodgy chord pattern. Life Stream hits a bit of a boundary. Sounds right from the off like it’s going to be more fullon, and it sort of straddles the progressive with a kind of light, tecchy fullon. It works, but the chord changes at the end will again most likely dictate when and where you play this. More melodic still with On The Edge, more euphoric-cum-mellow fullon. Evidently talented in the ways he morphs the sounds and makes the melodies rise; but the melodies themselves are rather saccharine, and it comes off as sub-Protoculture. On to Time, and by now we’re up over 140bpms and the music’s sounding more and more like normal fullon. Samples give way to snare rolls and peaks, the melodies and chords shift underneath, and things turn very euphoric to the point that I’d bet the farm that at least one of Lish got a new girlfriend between his last album and this. Fresh is led by a vocal, which isn’t too bad, but it’s not for the dancefloor. Moves well, the vocal itself isn’t too bad (reminds me of Olive’s Your Not Alone), but I pity the DJ who slips track 7 on out of habit with this one. Blue is a nice slomo (90bpm) setdown, breakbeaty but not too dublike or generic of other token chillage tunes stuck on the end of albums. And finally, bonus track, a remix of Slow Me Away, best filed under massive-breakdown-huge-drop-big-big-big-israeli; more accurately, a pretty good example thereof. All in all this is a likeable album; it flows well from its (brilliant) earlier progressive moments, and makes sense with every next-step. Some of the melodies and chord changes are a bit iffy, but by and large it works where a lot of other stuff fails. End of.