Unwind – ComPact

This pretty much slipped in under the radar here at psyreviews towers. And admit it, from the cover or tracklist, it’s not something the average punter will get terribly excited about. Slide it into your CD player though, and things take on an unexpectedly high-quality tone. Sublime, massage-quality chill with a gorgeously modern, smooth feel. Solarians’ Spring Thing is one of the finest bits of music I’ve heard all year, it’s deep and its fluid and has this sort of hippy-dub feel to it, without going too far into either individual territory. Tribalistic Society’s Aarhus On A Sunday Afternoon is another interesting one, very laidback and more fluid than an alcoholic’s breakfast…. with sounds borrowed from smooth house, the overall feel is fantastic and very individual. TKY’s Long Before This Day is sort of like a Rhodes-Reggae piece, peppered with comedy samples, and it works well. Lish’s Blue has a sort of eternal-classic feel to it, like it’s something you’ve heard a million times before on classic Café Del Mar compilations. I mean this in a good way: it cruises and glides along with a rare tonal grace. As for Sunfire’s Electronic… christ. I’d decided to pop into the shower, cranked the volume up so I could still sort of hear ths CD. Scrub scrub scrub, nice groove, sounds good, wash wash wash, and then… this amazing melody comes rising out: at once sad, happy, reflective, in-love, out-of-love. Gorgeous. I dashed out of the shower, and dripped water all the way back to the stereo to check it out: you just have to experience this one, kids. It’s simple yet incredibly effective, with a melody that sounds as though everything’s being put right in the world. Phew. Visual Paradox’s Gayo doesn’t quite cut the mustard, and sounds a little generic, but TKY vs Max Maxwell’s Twilight is right back up there again: eastern/spiritual wailing, complex arpeggios that seem to fly around the room, and a bassline you feel rather than hear, to hang it all together. Wilson Stout’s Helpless I had to skip, it starts out nice enough and the production works a treat but… the vocal… it’s veering on the wrong side of poppy. I can appreciate this in an Israeli way, I can also appreciate this in the way that it does technically work at this point in the compilation… but… ack. Sesto’s Slow Move is a decent enough tune, but it smacks itself into this album like a bull in a chillout shop. Elements that make it good (renegade snares, dropped beats) don’t fit on this CD; which is a pity. I’m sure Sesto could do a pretty smashing track if they tried something that would be in keeping with the vibe of the album; such as Psionyx’s Deimos Vista. Straight back in with the vibe again, a smooth and unfolding tune that just eases its way along… delightful. To close the album, Misted Muppet rinse out a two-minute work, pretty much what you’d expect from these guys really, their typical chord swoops translated onto slomo piano and… yeah! Okay! So what of this album then? Couple of observations. DJ Auspexx, who compiled this, has a rare ear for music. All the tunes here have flow (barring Sesto), they’re pitched well in between emotions and I think this is what Auspexx was trying to do. There’s something about this album, more than the sum of its parts. An absolute fucking gem, make no mistake about it. I just hope this album can raise its head enough above the general dearth of releases to get the recognition it deserves. Magnificent.