I don't have the album, but have heard some of the tracks; I also caught
them doing a 5-song "unplugged" set (Corinne, Andy on keyboards, an
acoustic guitar and two backup singers) yesterday at the Virgin Megastore
Los Angeles, where there was a pretty large turnout. A lot of the tunes
they did were in the late-60s/early 70s Bacharach/Sager/Carole King soul
pop vein, and I guess that's what the new album "Shapes and Patterns" is.
You're right, it does sound a lot like "Kaleidoscope World."
What's weird is, you would have thought SOS would have jumped on the Trip
Hop/Drum & Bass bandwagon;
their male instrumentalist - female vocalist image undoubtedly fits in the
trip-hop mold --
look at Everything But The Girl (though I wouldn't outright accuse them of
bandwagon jumping, but you get the picture) - after all, SOS' last album
("The Living Return") was a total Acid Jazz-fest, due mostly in part ot Ray
"Opaz" Hayden at the production helm. I've read interviews with SOS and
they always seem to view that album as "unusual", so I take it they weren't
that comfortable with it. I certainly liked it, despite a few acid jazz
cliches in some of the tracks (The last track, "Low Down Dirty Business"
was the dopest of them all!).
The new album is produced by Paul Stavely O'Duffy, who produced their debut
album. I guess they're just doing what *they* love to be doing, regardless
of music industry trends. I give them props for that, if indeed that is
their intent, but at the same time think their music needs a little bit
more beat-wise to give it that edge.
Elson
-30-
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Elson Trinidad
Los Angeles, CA, USA
elson@westworld.com * http://www.westworld.com/~elson
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