*. Code Indigo .*

Album: Chill (2006)
Genre: Prog Electronic (Ambient/New Age)  /  UK

This is one of the year's big releases for not one, but two music genres, because 'Chill' is a real crossover classic! It takes a complete listen to provide an overview of what it's all about, and the first thing to say is that it's another epic - nearly seventy-seven minutes long - but an epic that is just SO good. Secondly, like the recent AD Music albums 'Signal To The Stars' by Callisto, and 'Deeper' by David Wright, Chill is an album of genuine music quality, accessibility, writing & arranging with the ability to produce predominantly synth-based music that "relates" as much, if not more, to the likes of early Mike Oldfield and mid-seventies Pink Floyd, as it does to the "greats" of the Electronic Music world. Classic Rock CD Chill by Code IndigoSo, what you have here is the quartet of David Wright, Robert Fox, Dave Massey and, most crucially, Andy Lobban on lead and rhythm guitars. I say "most crucially" for, although this is a keyboards dominated album, the guitar work is what gives it that all-important extra-special ingredient, and the reason you hark back to the classic work of Oldfield and Floyd. The opening track sets the scene for, and the flavour of this album to perfection, with its gorgeous but strong synth moods and the soaring electric guitar work, giving the whole thing very much of a 'Wish You Were Here'-era Floyd feel, but with so much more depth and soundscapes courtesy of the superbly emotive and melodic synth work of Fox and Wright. And what follows is absolutely spellbinding - rarely will you hear music of this quality unfold so exquisitely, and to an extent that every track carries you along with it in such a way that you listen to it as one complete piece of music with so many ideas, all perfectly executed. 'Chill' is so much more that just a "synth music" album, if fact it's potential audience is far greater than even the largest fan-base that this genre of music can offer, spreading into the realms of "classic rock" and beyond. No doubt about it - 'Chill' really is a crossover classic! Review by "CDS" (www.codeindigo.co.uk).

RATING:  8 / 10

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