‘Shades’ is a hugely ambitious project even for Marc Romboy, a triple album that is designed to show off the different aspects of his musical personality, as a producer but also as a remixer. In his own words, ‘for disc one I want deep, groovy and soulful, disc two melodic, trippy and warm and for disc three I explored my love of noise, machine rhythms and crazy sounds’. This means ‘Shades’ is actually like listening to three different albums in one go. Disc one is outstanding, Romboy finding the perfect blend of hooky house music and some really deep funk that seems to come up from the floorboards. Disc two – as he says – is for the warmer weather, while disc three explores some very odd sounds indeed, with all sorts of buzzing, drilling and piercing sounds coming together – but never in an unmusical way. Romboy engages his influences affectionately – on CD1, there’s a bit of Kraftwerk, a bit of Hardfloor bubbling under the surface, but these things never break through intrusively. ‘L’arc en ciel’ is a very fine bit of work, ‘Astronotes’ (a remake of Sterac) leaves a warm feeling in its wake, while on the third disc ‘Recipocrity’ crackles with atmosphere and ‘The Awakening’ is dark and cutting. Romboy’s powers of invention mean he can effortlessly sustain the interest over a triple album – which is a really impressive achievement.
5 out of 5
Reviewed By Ben Hogwood
