KAYA PROJECT
Remixed: Body Mind Soul Part 1 (Bandcamp)
HIBERNATION
Organic Technology (Bandcamp)
It’s a rare year when British multi-instrumentalist and electronic producer Seb Taylor doesn’t release something good under one or more of the various aliases he’s been using since the mid 90’s.
The polished, tuneful pan-global downtempo of his Kaya Project alias continued in 2020 with Mind Body Soul. I found the original album underwhelming, actually, but it clearly has good bones because the subsequent remix album Remixed: Body Mind Soul Part 1 is a pearler. His collaborators give good love here and everything works. Bristol-based Globular boosts the sweet Indian-style vocals of “Souls Entwined” with dubby thunder worthy of genre luminaries like Ott. The Nasha Experience collective shows there’s still life in trippy drum ‘n’ bass. Best of all, French producer Suduaya pulls off a real stunner with his fusion of slow big-beat loops, tribal syncopations and euphoric synths on his rework of “Beware The Drunken Master”.
Meanwhile, Seb’s leftfield electronica project Hibernation makes a much welcome return on the excellent Organic Technology, the first album in eight years. Few artists navigate the leftfield space with such a solid musical foundation; in the Hibernation universe experimental downtempo is accessible, groovy and gently psychedelic; something to be deeply enjoyed than respectfully endured. The new album’s atmospheric grooves sit somewhere on the lounge, trip hop or progressive house tips, but fused with 100’s of unpredictable fragments of jazz, techno, electro, rock, Arabic and Indian music.
Best Albums of 2020 Reviews Index
