Shawn Lee – Synthesizers In Outer Space.
This is a brilliant (largely) instrumental funk album from an Acid Jazz-leaning ex- Talkin’ Loud alumni. And something of a show off too as he plays everything you hear! ‘AJ’s Mood’ is a soundtrack-informed skank round a closed fairground at midnight. Keyboard stabs and congas lead it to the end. ‘Celestial Waltz’ is like a Roy Budd Get Carter out-take. ‘Galactica’ has busy percussion and squelching bass synth along with some precision electric bass – break-beat heaven. It doesn’t really go anywhere but it’s still a trip!
‘Black Hole’ sees us tailing the suspect in a Seventies Cop show before space synth sucks us in. ‘Head up’ sounds generic – too much like the sort of thing designed to end up on an advert yet there’s some nice fuzz guitar and it’s catchy as…
‘Boogie Children’ is somewhere between ‘Roadhouse Blues’ and ‘Rock and Roll part 2’ by Gary Glitter , and something of a Talkin’ Loud label reunion with its vocals by Earl Zinger (rather more prosaically Rob Gallagher from Galliano ). That it sounds like a 70s cover is probably the point.
This album never sits still and is clearly the work of a beats craftsman. The percussion tumbles from every track, being at least as prevalent as the expected synths. Even the rather chilled ‘Jupiter’s Jam’ is all punchy jazz-funk bass lines. ‘Tiger Style’ rounds things up with an anything-goes slightly off-kilter Latin work-out with unsettling tiger roars slapped in the mix.