Album Review: On Vacation - CFCF

Following on from last year's Lingua Franca by Len Leise, International Feel are back with the second release in their mini-album series, this time featuring CFCF.

Real name Michael Silver, Montreal-native music producer has created a timeless slice of cool ambience in the form of album On Vacation. In it's attempts to capture places and travels the album has the whiff of a concept album.

Les Fleurs Laissés Dans Un Taxi may act in a tribute to Paris and Lighthouse On Chatham Sound depicts late afternoon by the Canadian sea, but in reality everything hear would sound at home on beaches in the Mediterranean. There is a nod to Parisian cool of Les Fleurs Laissés and Sate Padang (named after a a type of satay from Pedang) has elements of Indonesian music running through it, yet it would be as easy to enjoy On Vacation without paying attention to any of this. As a piece of left field experimental music it hangs together to create a wonderfully atmospheric experience. 

This being a mini album there are just eight tracks, but each feels like a discrete experience in a broader narrative. Pleasure Centre basks in sunny 80s groove, funky guitar licks and a cool piano melody creating the feel of a gorgeous sunset at the end of a wonderful day. The aforementioned Lighthouse On Chatham Sound is full of jazzy keys and elastic bass notes, creating a constantly shifting sense of calm and relaxation. 

Overall On Vacation is a short but perfectly formed trip - subtle but beautiful.

On Vacation is out on International Feel on Friday. Listen an album preview consisting of snippets below:

Album Review: So Many Colours - José Padilla

I'm never quite over Balearic. No matter what happens there is always part of me digging around wondering where the next Balearic experience can come from. A poolside in a hotel, a private lawn drenched in dew and sunshine but free of connotation, the excitement of an evening in the company of people that know you for what you can be and not what you are in the drudgery of 9-5.

Once you have felt it, chances are you remember that sense of Baleria, like the one that got away. José Padilla has long experimented with this space.  Overseeing a number of Café Del Mar's compilation albums and their sunset sets in the flesh. Here on So Many Colours he expands the borders to create something a little more cinematic. 

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So Many Colours - José Padilla

So Many Colours is a druggy, slow to move and sun-caked hot-mess of a record. Padilla alternates between looting the past and frankly drowning himself inside it.

Opener Day One is a timeless shuffle, shoes squeaking on floorboards as voices shout over the hustle in order the get a drink. It's effortlessly then, now and forever... Timeless in the way it captures sun and excitement. But in comparison On The Road feels separated from the present and close to irrelevant. 

Moments like Solito are so thickly baked in the heady muddy sun that it is hard to resist getting stuck in there with them. Mojame kicks in like a crisp glass of wine, urgently suggesting we kick it back a notch, cool yet expertly insistent just as much as  track Lollipop is stark and laid back.

Album closer Remember Me is like Jean Michel Jarre after a week-long documentary concerned with mankind's brilliance: dramatic, organic, dynamic. Like much of So Many Colours it is at turns essential and frivolous. It is hard not to dream of heady days spent in Spanish sunshine when confronted with this album, yet it also over-stays its welcome... The ideas often not quite deserving all the space given over to them.

So Many Colours is out on 1 June through International Feel. Available for pre-order from iTunes and Amazon [affiliate links]. Check out a preview of album opener Day One below:

release date: 23rd of March TRACKLIST 1. Jose Padilla - Day One 2. Jose Padilla - Day One (Telephones Club Dub) http://www.juno.co.uk/products/jose-padilla-day-one/565409-01/ http://www.phonicarecords.com/product/jose-padilla-day-one-telephones-remix-pre-international-feel/128458 Legendary is a much overused word in this day and age, but legend is a word that can easily be applied to DJ and producer Jose Padilla. Alongside DJ Alfredo of Amnesia, Jose Padilla gave birth to the other side of the Balearic coin - the mellow sunset side - and in turn influenced millions of people around the globe from Madonna to DJ Harvey, whether they saw him soundtrack the sunset or just bought one of his seminal Cafe Del Mar Compilations. Padilla likes to move forwards and in the International Feel label he has found the perfect partner. After signing to the label in the winter of 2014, Padilla worked with label head and producer of note Mark Barrott, to create the slow balearic techno sounds of first single “Solito”, which, complete with remixes from Wolf Müller, re-imagined his vision for new and old listeners alike. From this new beginning, the idea to work on his first album in 15 years was born, but the label wanted to do things differently. They took four of the finest producers of the moment - Wolf Müller from Germany, Mark Barrott from Ibiza, Telephones from Norway and Tornado Wallace from Australia - and flew them out to work with Padilla in Ibiza on the project. A global line up for a global sound. The first fruits of these collaborations is the new single “Day One”. Produced by Henning Telephones (Resident Advisor chose his recent Running Back release as one of their best of 2014), it mixes a classic balearic sound with the ‘proper’ deep house of Ron Trent and Chez Damier. Layers and washes of melodies running over deep beats….something that fits the sound of “now” perfectly. If you ask Telephones why he wanted to work with Padilla he’ll tell you, “As an eclectic and open-minded DJ myself, getting the opportunity to work with one of the pioneers of the Balearic sound and his approach to music didn't take much considering. Even with 30 years between us, we kinda come from the same place in a spiritual-musical sense. Plus getting the chance to put my pale Scandinavian feet on Ibiza-sand was a nice bonus. It was like being able to check out a place you remember, but only through second-hand memories. The scheduled time for the project would also fittingly conclude my perhaps most fantastic month ever, playing both Panorama Bar and Robert Johnson. So then going more or less straight to Ibiza for this project seemed like a perfect round-off to what had been a long and amazing summer for me. I also like and have a lot of respect for the uncompromising and decent way Mark runs International Feel. Him having Wolf Müller and Tornado Wallace also on-board, didn't exactly hurt either.” So this very much is “Day One”. A new place for Jose Padilla working with the best of the new generation of producers and a new rebirth of the original Balearic sound - aware of its roots but pushing forwards. “Day One” indeed. http://www.internationalfeel.com http://www.facebook.com/internationalfeelrecordings