Chillspresso 1: Dari Bali

I’m going to paraphrase, for a moment, Mr Darcy in Pride And Prejudice: “If this is indeed what living in Bali sounds like, then I really rather think I should be living there rather than sitting in this shithole talking to you, Mr Wickham.”

Dari Bali is a sublimely smooth piece of amply-lubed chillout compiled by Supercozi, the slightly-more-attractive half of Zen Lemonade. Where it succeeds is filling a niche untouched by a lot of other downtempo: it’s not bong-n-hammock, it’s not Café Del Mar, and it’s not The Ultimate Beach Lounge Buddha Album In The World Ever Volume 16.

System 7 vs Zen Lemonade’s Chill Dome Refugees is staggering – the production is glassy, crystalline stuff and the track’s movement washes over you like pure, another-deceptively-fruity-tasting-cocktail-why-the-hell-not bliss.

Blue Planet Corporation does well with Hardcore Buddhist, a house track in the vein of Naked NYC that isn’t really hardcore, and probably isn’t very Buddhist. Zen Lemonade’s presence is tasty as well: the hazy, late-night Catalyzer contrasts well with the borderline-HedKandi Sun Chaser. More house pops up with Gus Till’s Red Sun Dub, whose starry wandering melodies almost fight with the laconic, strolling rhythm section.

Brother Culture teams up with Gus Till, Youth, Dub Judah and Funky Gong for a shining example of bang up-to-date chilled dub; meanwhile Gus’ remix of Ionizer’s I Need Sunshine isn’t much consolation here in the f*ing tundra that is Melbourne in the winter, but will sound dazzling anywhere with a more considerate climate.

It’s all a fairly schitzophrenic compilation, but this is a virtue. Cozi’s own Lady Mint Tea sort of sums up the whole compilation – it’s varied, eclectic and quirky stuff that’s doing its own thing and really doesn’t pay too much attention to what you were expecting.

This is nice stuff, seriously nice stuff. The mere fact that it’s not the same as all those other chillout CD’s you’ve got is reason enough to sniff it out. And, f anyone from the Indonesian government is reading, Bali would see tourism revenue treble if this album was mailed out instead of all those glossy brochures.