Diskovery Channel

Human Blue

Diskovery Channel

Chillcode (Germany)

Human Blue has come up with some dazzlingly good chilled tunes of late, appearing on all sorts of compilations. And usually at the end, where you want that sunset / lovedup / ephemeral sort of tune to bring things to a close. And this is an album of incredibly intimate chilled music: very end-of-the-night stuff. Communicate is a sublime starter, incredibly deep and sets the tone for the whole CD. You know you’re in for a treat, basically: smooth undecipherable vocode vox breezes it along, while retired-trance melodies rise and fall. It sounds like palm trees in space. Oceans One takes things into that slomo 4-4 territory, where a lot of great chillout moments happen but are pretty hard to find. This is soaring, reminds me of BT at his emotive best, much more mature but no less white-island. Organic takes it deeper still (there’s parts of it that are so subtle they’re hardly there), and the smooth melodies on Spectral contrast brilliantly with the thunking, street drumming in the background. Wonderworld takes it deeper still, kinda new-agey with a breathy, deep, reverb-heavy vocal chanting away in the background, and slinky-fluid pads underneath. Outback has a kinda rumbling, rambling feel to it; it’s more dissociated than the other tracks here, it seems to lose its way. Which it does well, of course – with this production and layering it’s hard to go wrong – it’s just that some of the other tracks here feel more focused. Case in point: Riddle Rhythm. It’s right on the money and one of the album’s standouts. It’s got everything you want from a chill track – depth, subtlety, progression, feeling… perfectly Scandinavian, and reminds me in parts of Matenda’s chilled output. Finally, you’ve got Lost Time, setting you down with some dazzling production, great melodies, smooth tones… I’m kinda repeating myself, but only because this album is as well. It’s smooth and it’s breezy, but it seems to be lacking a bit of involvement. Don’t get me wrong: it’s nice, and it’s clever, and as an album it flows well. But if you prefer your chillout a bit more involved and a little more challengind, you may be better off elsewhere. Human Blue has produced a nice enough album, but you get the impression he’s not really pushed himself.