Genre : Soft Rock with a Tropical and Smooth Jazz flavor,
the 111% Scarface soundtrack
Label : Independent
Origin : various, see text below
Official site > - here - <
Buy it now
This review - as you will very soon see - starts out with a quotation section taken from the official site of reviewed ensemble.
Quote from the Bio of the official site :
"WORLD5 coalesced around the idea that music can transcend distance. The five members had all played together in various bands in the U.S. and Europe. But that was then. Today, they live on three difference continents spanning 19 time zones from the U.S. to Australia. Yet distance was no barrier to their creativity and shared sense of musical purpose. Thanks to the power of home digital recording, each member recorded his part in the comfort of his own home.
Sure, it eliminated the intimacy of playing in the same room. But it also freed them from thetraditional stresses of recording. No scary red recording lights to rattle their nerves. No worrying about paying for recording studio time. No plates of unappetizing cold cuts moldering in the control room. That didn’t mean they didn’t talk.There were weekly chats on Skype and a steady flow of email to hone the vision of each song. And the occasional midnight phone call to hammer home an important point.
Then the final tracks were shipped to Randy Miller the wunderkind producer in Houston, Texas, where he tweaked and assembled them into the songs on this album that you’re listening to. The next step? Hit the same stage at the same time in the same city and play the songs together!"
Sounds good? Let's find it out!
The intent behind the music on this disc is entirely positivistic and tastily formed/expressed at that, with no smarmy and artificial tendencies on display at ll. It sounds to me like WORLD5 consciously chose to give an ubiquitous character-, kind of a concept to the entire disc, as the stimuli on the contribution takes you on a full scale tropical vacation, no matter if you are a miner commanding a robotic electromagnetic drill at the core of the Earth with a retired pro wrestler giving you directions. Evidently made to work well and fluent with numerous kinds of settings and situations from driving a car en route to your holiday with your love interest, to an easy listening session with no tolling/intimidating musical concepts to be digested, WORLD5's latest doubtless reigns among the most pleasant smooth jazz/soft rock surprises of the year. The shape-, the ultimate meaning of the music the disc is elegantly and soberly packed full of is decipherable even at the first spin.
The primordial temper of the Global Experience LP offers a fine rendition of a unique variant of soft rock, with one of its foot on a smooth jazz territory, and the other being planted on a unique blend of jazz-infested Latin/Tropical vibes. Sounds strange? Not al all! It sounds "just" great, and you almost surely know the vibe I'm talking about, I just need to give you some examples : the track called "You And I" has a Shade - "Smooth Operator" and Madonna's "La Isla Bonita" methodology of conveying what is up at the core of the psyche, and this particular emotional disposition is the most persistent one of the disc. The length is pretty sober. "How long is it?" - is your question. 42 is the Answer.
Wait! I sense a delicious duality in the Force. As noted, the album partly sounds to me as exigent Tropical Tourist music done with mature musical taste and skills, and a keen readiness to offer richly detailed sonic fabrics, yet! While there is nothing wrong at all with this diligently and decently realized direction, the disc has its fair share of exceptionally powerful stimuli, too! If you are a regular here at Noise Shaft, - hello, perv! - then you know that I do not easily throw around accounts of being radically impressed by the given music, though I personally always am looking for that, and tend to think that music always should exhibit the urge to facilitate such effect on the listener. Here is the thing : this particular disc does possess this extremely rare capacity, as you will see. (Yes, this was the "stay tuned!" section.)
The audio landscapes offered by the LP are always intricately detailed and are packed with exceptionally abundant-, soberly arranged dosages of fine sound selections. I dare say that the disc borders on Dire Straits sometimes, and a "late" Laid Back - "Bakerman" era - equally comes to mind. Combine these flavors with the brilliant sunset-instrumental ethos of the classic track "Lily Was Here", and you have an image of what to expect from the LP. This is the disc I would not be surprised if it shipped with a pair of high quality stockings in the package. Yes : lush music, but never crosses the line from sunset-romantics to what exactly are you doing under the table?
The thing I enjoy vastly about the delivery is that it never gets out of the self-directed line it chooses to tread along : focus is maintained throughout with a clear sense of limitation as one particular prime directive, while the other agenda-foam offers abundant full value audio data, - the production simply is flawless in the spirit of the "smooth operative" ethos - yet never as aggressively that it would harm the intentionally slim BUT sublimely elegant gazelle-anatomy of the music.
Hell, the disc gives me full-body shivers on occasion and puts fat teardrops into my eyes - very rare thing, and the only thing I'm looking for in music - with tracks on it like the one titled "Walk Away" : this is more of an up-tempo piece that reeks an awesome Scarface vibe. The name of its magic is straightforward in its ambition, and very hard to fulfill : this song, believe it or not, turns you into Tony Montana for the period it lasts for. If you don't yet know who Tony Montana is, you WILL. ("Why??" Because he is the guy who "pwns" the world and YOU in it, chicco.)
As noted, the disc is the perfect soundtrack both for a tropical dinner with someone you want to persuade to take a thorough and scientific look at your record collection right after, and it works with 111% efficiency to get you into a smooth, easy going - hah! - Scarface mood. Though I have sub-zero doubt whatsoever that the production team of a future Scarface video game would do anything - including hacking the financial system of K-Pax - to get this whole album as a soundtrack-entry for the game AND rightfully so, keep in mind that the disc is primordially peaceful, playful, lush, and it simply kicks tremendous-, exigent early '80s soft rock/smooth jazz ass. Highly recommended.
Check out WORLD5 at their official site > - here - <
GyZ at Bandcamp.
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