ESCAPE VELOCITY

"Escape Velocity" is the 4th full-length studio album by US electronic/ambient music act Zombi. The album was released through Relapse Records in May 2011. Relapse Records is mostly known for being the home of extreme metal acts of various flavours, but in recent years they´ve begun to sign artists from other genres too.

The music on "Escape Velocity" is a relatively simple type of electronic/ambient music. It´s repetitive and slow building. Often with longer parts with only a steady simple rythm figure and sequencing synths playing the same motif over and over again. Usually after a while a simple melody is played and sometimes more synth layers are put on top. The music is pleasant and easy on the ears but sometimes also a bit too close to sounding like muzak for comfort. Zombi tread a fine line here but thankfully they mostly keep on the right side of it.

The album is well produced and the musicianship is decent, but "Escape Velocity" is not exactly an album that blows me away. The tracks don´t really stick and it is in the songwriting department that the group could get better. It´s not a bad release either though and I do on occasion enjoy the album as background music, but to my ears this is not "listening" music. Still a 2.5 - 3 star (55%) rating is warranted.