Soul On The Radio, Lap Steel In My Soul and Alone Again With The Sun Coming Up

 

May 31st - last day of this wonderful month that I love so much and I wonder where it's gone

he disappeared. We've had a lot of unsettled weather over the last few days, but basically the month, what I love about it, was making this transition from spring-like days to the first bursts of summer. I wasn't able to work for some time due to a bicycle accident and subsequent surgery. Next Monday I'll cautiously get back on and see how it feels.

But today it’s time to chill out again. A term that often has a negative connotation in the music world due to many sell-out tendencies, similar to what might be the case with New Age.

And how much I hated the term New Age myself, even if the word hate is perhaps too strong a word for it. The fact is, they could drive me out of the yard with NA.

Today things have changed for a long time, I simply know too many good albums that belong to the New Age genre, and I've never had any problems with the term chill out. Sale or not. In the end, it is always the music that speaks for itself, beyond all terminology.

Almost exactly 10 years ago “The Chill Out Album” by Coco, Steel & Lovebomb was released.

When I read the announcement and theme of the album, I was pretty excited and felt my heart rate increase. A trip back to the chill out rooms of the 90s and of course references to THE chill out album of all time, KLF's version and vision of retreat spaces, it was clear that I would jump on this bandwagon. When the album was released in June 2014, I wasn't disappointed and the beginning of the World Cup in Brazil didn't stop me from spending time horizontally with this album as often as possible. 

“Synthesizer pads surge, voices murmur in the background, water rushes past, isolated guitar lines meander along the horizon.” (Groove). It makes no sense to single out individual track titles, which are also a clear reference to KLF's masterpiece, as the entire album should be listened to in a flow with its transitions. The album was co-produced and co-written by Deekie, among others, about whom I will write separately (Effects -Special Ambient Atmospheres Created By Deekie).

Acidted wrote a wonderful review back then, which I would like to share again here and bring out of obscurity:

„Coco,Steel & Lovebomb produced some brilliant house music in the early/mid 90s on Warp before fading. Chris Coco has continued as a successful artist and owner of the cracking downtempo Melodica label. But you worry when your 90s heroes return, in case, well, the music’s rubbish and tarnishes you and your memories. Thankfully, they haven’t attempted to return to a house music but have gone for an ambient concept album. To be more specific, and the album title’s a giveaway, a sort of update of the classic KLF album Chill Out.

The KLF album portrays a mythical night-time journey by rail up the US Gulf Coast from Texas into Louisiana. It is a brilliant album, recorded in a single take in 1990, that stands up incredibly well today. Even now, I can’t hear a steel guitar without thinking about “Elvis on the Radio, Steel Guitar in My Soul”. To produce your own album that owns up to the debt it owes this seminal record is setting yourself a tough ask. How have CS&L done? But first, why do it?

Chris Coco comments “We have been listening to a lot of new ambient and bedroom computer music over the last couple of years. We felt that it was the right time to make a ‘proper’ chillout album. The loose nature of the Coco Steel & Lovebomb working group is the perfect framework to make some experimental music of that nature. This album is a sort of throwback to the time when CSL were raving and chilling so it felt appropriate from that point of view. It’s taking something of the spirit of that time but adding something new with contemporary production techniques and sounds.”

And so to the album. The KLF set theirs firmly in the USA, despite the samples from other cultures. CS&L’s version is more rootless, reflecting a stateless dance culture, though with more London and Asian or Indian influence than anything else. Although there are puns or pastiches in some of the titles (Soul On The Radio, Lap Steel In My Soul and Alone Again With The Sun Coming Up, in particular) it’s a proper album in its own right, with musical references back to The KLF kept to a minimum. Where it gains on most ambient album is in following The KLF’s lead in having tracks flow one into another. There’s no point for this type of album in reviewing tracks. It slides along with the beautiful haze of the semi-stoned in the sunshine. This will blow some minds this festival season. Does it exceed The KLF? Not sure it really sees itself in that sort of competition. It’s its own lovely self. And that’s more than enough.

File under: Ambient, British Summer Time, Electronica. 

Coco, Steel & Lovebomb last got together in 1994 to make an album for Warp Records called It. 

20 years later, on mid summers day, the enigmatic trio return with new material - The Chillout Album, a kind of homage to 90s chillout rooms and lost weekends at festivals. 

The tracks were made in a series of late night sessions in various south London studios under the heavy influence of many crackly vinyl spins of classic albums by Eno, KLF and Laraaji; with pals Deekie, James McArthur and Haraket popping in to contribute too. 

This is 44 minutes and 44 seconds of melodies and grooves interwoven with found sound and analogue noise, making one long, immersive piece that demands repeat listening.

-Bandcamp-