Reviews Roundup – Kyte vs. Negative Trip vs. Badi Assad

Reviews Roundup – Kyte vs. Negative Trip vs. Badi Assad
KYTE
Love To Be Lost
Eastworld

And it’s synth-pop go! Apparently, this electronic indie pop group, from Leicestershire, started off life as a shoegaze outfit. However, seems that Nick Moon (vocals), Tom Lowe (guitars and keyboards), and Scott Hislop (drums and percussion) have wisely moved on from that into the world of synth-pop. Now I can’t claim to be a huge fan of eitherbut give me death or give me shoegaze, and it’s hanging at dawn.

This fourth album sees them doing that shimmery modern electro-pop thing that seems to be popular with critics and less popular with record buyers. But if the potential, selective audience gets to listen to this, then I’m sure they will find this rather enjoyable. Opening number ‘Breaking Bones’ is a wee cracker with some infectious percussion, and even if things take a less populist slant thereafter, there are some splendid electronic grooves on display across the likes of ‘Almost Life’, ‘Over After’ and ‘September 5th’.

They’re good at mixing up perky pop with more sombre electronic pieces and if you like this sort of thing, then you will like this.

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NEGATIVE TRIP
Drug Time
Purple Tree

Bad Negative Trip! Bad Negative Trip! We don’t encourage that sort of thing around here. Now me and Negative Trip go back a long way. In fact we go back to the cusp of the last century and a cassette album they sent my way. That’s right. Cassette album! We knew how to live it large back in the day. A time when I could say “electronic beats, hip hop samples, repetitive, hypnotic loops, edgy vocals sometimes bordering on the psychotic.”

In fact, I could just repeat that here and it would be just as apposite. If memory serves the last time I heard from Negative Trip was about 4 years back and an album called “Parasite Psychosis”. That one was “a bleak, unrelenting electronic darkwave trip”, and “Drug Time” serves up more of the same, but with added orgone accumulator. There is certainly something very unsettling going on in the bowels of this record, an undercurrent that churns your innards in a very unpleasant way. Something I’m sure they’ll be delighted to hear.

Over the top, there are moments of sturm und drang, especially on opener ‘Anomie’, moments of ambient EBM, looping soundtracks and even the odd, escaped dance beat on numbers like ‘Dichotomie’. Music for the dark of heart.

http://www.negativetrip.com/

BADI ASSAD
Between Love And Luck
Quatro Ventos

Lastly for today, we’re off to Brazil. Land of football, samba and excruciating poverty. A bit like Leith, but with added dance. And I’m a wee bit unsure as to who Badi Assad is? I mean there is a lot of flamenco guitar on offer, even some nods to jazz, some straightforward pop and even some introspective acoustic singer / songwritery stuff. A bit like 1975 condensed into one album.

But when it’s good, it’s very good. There’s no doubting that her voice is exceptionally listenable. All the music is self composed, and even if the lyrics I understood tend to be a bit on the hippy drippy side, the groove and spirit of the song carries you along. In a couple of places, she adds in some electronic beats and they, strange to relate, are probably the best tracks on the album. So, say hallo to ‘Pega No Coco’ and ‘Eu Vim Daquele Lugar’. Elsewhere, I was particularly taken with the folky ‘Noite De Sao Joao’.

Most of the songs (ten out of fourteen) are sung in Portugese, but don’t let that put you off, as musically, there is more than enough to hold your attention. File under interesting.

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