Summer sound heads south
10:24am Wednesday 11th April 2001
From Here On In South (Mowax)
Listening to this album by South is almost enough to convince me that summer is here, despite the evidence to the contrary.
It's the type of CD you can put on repeat and it will soundtrack your days in the sunshine.
It mixes dance beats, samples and a more traditional indie sounds that remain fresh even after repeated listens.
The single, Paint The Silence, shows there is more to guitar-flavoured music than the dreary Travis and Stereophonics of this world.
Owing a little to the indie-dance crossover of the early 90s, From Here On In deserves to have the same impact that the first Stone Roses album had. The mix of styles gels more completely than you would ever imagine it could. Keep Close for example, has a little John Lennon in the vocals and a bit of Beck in the eclectic instrumentation.
The beats take firmer prominence in All In For Nothing (Reprise) where the dance atmospherics add a fine contrast to the more mellow tones of some of the other songs. Broken Head II is on a par with the likes of Unkle, so it comes as no surprise to discover James Lavelle co-produced the album.