From Iain H. Sent Wed, Oct 22nd 1997, 23:54
From Iain H. Sent Wed, Oct 22nd 1997, 23:54
>any quick review on this? > >thanks in advance! > >Chris 'Shaped to make your life easier' (named after the marketing slogan for a brand of feminine hygeine product) is, on the whole, absolutely great - it's electro-cheese-funk mixed with easy listening similar to to 'makesaracket' but with a little more jazz&jewellery and possibly using a more sample-based format (actually, reading that back, that doesn't sound great at all but for some reason it all comes together with Mike's irrepresibly melodic soul and comes out ~right~ :) ). I'm not actually 100% as to why this wasn't a Jake Slazenger product. It is different enough to stop people from any sort of 'stuck in a groove' type comment but not *so* different that it seems a somewhat unnecessary alias. Most tracks take a loop from something already pretty jazzy or funky and then kick in with a lo-fi (but occasionally surprisingly big-beaty) drum loop before onto a tweaked synth melody (with the occasional touch of acid!) of sorts. Mike P. always succeeds at creating some sort of vibe within his tracks. This release has some great mood pieces, both stuff most folk like and other stuff that they don't (there's a comedic spoken piece where Mike P. hams it up something rotten with a fake accent and croon-a-la-Barry White; it may well be a love it or hate it type of thing). It isn't a wide-ranging or dynamic album but it IS a worthy purchase and if you get the chance to listen to it you may find it surprisingly infectious :) Rubyjune.