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- CONTENT - True
Colour of Blood - The Significance of Secrecy COLLAGE Various
Artists - Memento Soundtrack
Now, when I first heard Hooverphonic’s electronic trip-hop masterpiece A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular I thought that I”d heard the sexiest album of my life. Of course, that title was just begging to be contested, and the new champion is Collide’s Y2K album Chasing the Ghost. This is a sexy, sexy album kids! It’s a triumphant blend of trip-hop, electronica, goth, pop and yes, even world-music elements. Exotic, erotic, and seductive, that’s this album in a nutshell. All of Collide’s songs are produced, mixed and engineered by Statik, while the lovely Karin provides vocals and words. It’s a match made in heaven, to be sure. This album is cohesive and fluid. And I’m gushing now, which is hardly flattering to me, but this album is just so good that I can’t stop talking about it.
All the way through, the rhythms are syncopated and trippy, with undulating waves of sound that seduce the senses. Karin’s vocals are amazing. Sometimes soft and sweet, often whispery, she is a siren to be sure. She can also scream and rant with the best of them. She’s not a bad poet either. From “Wings of Steel”: “Your wings are tired/You can not get there from here/Where you aspire/You can not fly there from here/Chasing the wings of steel/Chasing the ghost of time/Chasing the taste of life/Chasing the ghost of time”. Her imagery is powerful, often dark and lyrical.
Collide’s “thank you”section reads like a who’s-who of the underground music industry. They even garner the help of William Faith and Monica Richards of Faith & The Muse for guitars and vocals on the songs “White Rabbit”, “Dream Sleep”, and “Monochrome”. If the title “White Rabbit” rang a bell in your memory, yes, it’s a cover of the Jefferson Airplane song! Collide does it up sultry and trippier than the original. I like cover songs anyway, but I REALLY like Collide’s covers. By all means, search out their covers of Devo’s “Whip It” (its extremely sexy) and “Son of a Preacher Man” available on their remix album Distort.
I am amazed by their ability to segue from a darker-heavy-beat dance song to a strange wispy vampyre-waltz type tune. My favorite songs include the trip-hop “Razor Sharp”, which goes down so easy, yet, if you listen to the words, isn’t all that pretty of a song. Its all about the isolation, baby. “Ocean” is my other favorite, a rhymthmic tango of a song. “Liquidized emotion/Water takes you in/Deep within the ocean/ I could sleep for days/Hours only minutes/ thoughts of imagery/lure you from your spectrum/solve your misconceptions”. “Ocean” is extremely melodic, sensitive and sensual. Its at once deep and smooth as glass. Other tunes of note (although the whole album comes highly recommended): “Wings of Steel”, “Transfer”, and “Like You Want to Believe” (one of my personal anthems of the summer).
Chasing the Ghost was my second-favorite album of 2001 (nevermind, it was new to ME in 2001). Languid, sensual listening with a darker bent and tremendous production value. Take this to your next rendezvous. Rating: Sensual electronic dark trip-hop dream-pop Stars:
Recommended if you Like: Portishead, Siouxsie & the Banshees, Dead Can Dance, Delerium, Bjork Track Listing: 1.
Transfer Website: www.collide.net
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