URBAN MYTH CLUB - OPEN UP
(TRL Music)

The second album from Urban Myth Club is a mostly pleasing slice of downtempo ambient electronica, mixing solid beats with lush, floating tunes that jump between instrumentals and songs topped with ethereal female vocals. As such, it's probably not an album you'll be listening to if you want to get up and go, but it's an ideal chill-out piece.

The tracks, written and performed by UMC duo Mark Desvaux and Ian Sanderson, are not overly remarkable in themselves, but manage to slide into your subconscious, allowing you to drift away into a blissed out dream world - an ideal way to unwind after a hard day (or hard night partying perhaps...). The vocal tracks are, lyrically, pretty inconsequential - though coming to an album like this expecting lyrical profundity is probably a foolish move. But while the vocals of MizAgata, Frida Parr and Jenni Stanley are suitably trippy and blend well with the music, it's the instrumentals that generally work best. A couple of tracks are a little jarring - Everything's All Right mixes movie dialogue samples, Enigma-esque choir voices and a rather too driving beat in what becomes a bit of a mess, while Friday Night ineffectively combines old educational dating movie samples with a rather too stridently 'funky' tune - but for the most part, tracks like opener Wake Up, Area 51 and The Open Road have a cinematic soundscape feel that works beautifully, making this an album well worth sniffing out..

DAVID FLINT

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