Zero 7
Simple Things
Palm Pictures/Rykodisc

Where up-tempo urban electronic music seems to have many distinct sub-groups, such as house, trance, or happy hardcore, anything relatively down-tempo, be it trip-hop, instrumental hip-hop, or even cheese-pop seems to be lumped into a class known as "chill-out music." Much of the mentality behind the moniker is due to the belief that once one's party has ended for the night, the leftover revelers can wind down with a bit of ambient groove. Or, one might want to indulge in a private listening to some intelligent electronic music that is not so fast-paced.

The UK has produced some of the finest chill-out artists, including Massive Attack, Portishead, and the KLF, whose classic album Chill Out practically defines the imagined genre. Out of that fertile land comes a new DJ-producer duo called Zero 7, and their debut album, Simple Things, has finally dropped in the United States.

At first listen, Zero 7 seems comparable to fellow down-tempo duo Air. Comparing Zero 7 to Air might be a little too easy, but the similarities are hard to miss. Two chaps, Henry Binns and Sam Hardaker, spent most of their years toiling in behind the scenes production duties before they began to produce some successful remixes (their excellent mix of Radiohead's "Climbing Up the Walls" might even be better than the original), eventually leading to the release of their own small run original singles.

Building an underground following in their native UK, they finally released their full-length Simple Things, an astounding album featuring three different vocalists, Sia Furler, Mozez, and Sophie Barker, sharing duties on some impressive songs written and produced by Binns and Hardaker. But here is where the Air comparison starts to fade.

Instead of the cheesy irony which permeates much of Air's music, Zero 7 delivers some of the most breathtaking, endearing and soulful torch songs put to CD. The disc is split between epic instrumentals and passionate vocals, both combining to create a funky stew so infectious, it's hard to turn this record off. The album highlight, "Distractions," is sung to perfection by Australian vocalist Furler, and her distinctive husky voice lends heft to an already powerful song. Male vocalist Mozez shines on three songs, especially the album opener "I Have Seen," which starts off slowly and reaches a dizzying climax, complete with sitar and tabla which come seemingly out of nowhere to finish a great song.

In fact, it almost seems that Zero 7 have come out of nowhere to give us an album that's going to stand the test of time as a classic of down-tempo chill-out grooves. Only time will tell, but in the short term, it would be an understatement to say Simple Things is one of the very best albums of last year.

— Warren Tessler (eons at myrealbox dot com)