HEAVENICETRIP!

Well, I dislike this almost as much as I love Colorstar's latest album [Komfort] - while Komfort is full of catchy melodies and crazy beats, Heavenicetrip sounds sterile and devoid of inspiration, much of the time meandering along towards some unseen horizon in an uninspiring and lacklustre fashion. Sure, there are signs of future brilliance, but they are deeply enmeshed in a morass of over-repeated phrases, unexciting hooks and some average musicianship. Sadly, the only proper song on the album [Six Steps On The Moon] is devoid of merit and features a tedius drum solo!

But it is not all negative - far from it. The electric guitar sounds nice and mellow in a primary supporting role, while the fretless bass is a welcome sound. As also is the addition of hand percussion (tabla) to augment the drum kit on occasion. Voices do not play a major part, but when present they give a distinct lift to a track like the 60s inflected psychedelic Pedmóbü. Most of the material is of the free-form kind and is quite disposable, but occasionally a spark gets ingnited: five minutes into O-Zone a short bridge leads into a fine bouncy beat and guitar solo; Running In The City starts with a superb atmospheric section but ultimately runs out of ideas; while Karma Tours ends the album on a high, by far the best track with an Indian mantra and heavy guitar riff.

The fact that this was Colorstar's debut means that it was not a bad first effort, at the very least providing a fair basis from which to move forward. Overall, though, Heavenicetrip is a very patchy album that has too few virtues to warrant more than passing interest.