Lounge reviewed at Sound Generator
In general the releases include a combination of single notes and hits and instrumental loops and phrases. There’s a wide range of styles and sounds within the various genres. For example the Jazz/world category has everything from flamenco guitar riffs to bossa drum loops and some honking New Orleans horns sections. Most of the recordings have been made with a very light use of EQ and FX, allowing you the freedom to add your own processing. Having said that some of the drum loops on the Lounge/chillout selection have some very tasty filtering going on for that er… ‘Bristol’ sound. If you enjoy the kind of records that Kruder and Dorfmeister, Air and Zero 7 make this should be on your shopping list. There are loads of ambiences, pads, bass, fx, drum & percussion (loops and hits), soft keys and live grooves to play around with. I suspect that most of the loops and phrases from this release would work with selections from Jazz/world really well - lots of room to experiment and mix and match.
At £39.95 these releases do represent really good value for money. I tend to buy an awful lot of sample CDs and CD ROMs for inspiration and "stuff I can't play myself." Even if you just find one or two things on a sample CD that spark off a great track I reckon you've already had your money's worth. About 85% of my work is record production but the last BBC drama series I composed music for ending up needing five and a half hours of music over ten episodes. At times like that you're going to need all the help you can get - especially when it's four in the morning and a courier is going to arrive in a few hours to pick up the cues. I'm sure that plenty of sales on these releases will be to film and TV composers as well as musicians and remixers.
Overall? Great value for money and some cool creative content.
Lounge/chillout - 8/10
