Search - Karmacoda :: Reco mended

Splendid!

sfbookreviewer | SF, CA | 03/28/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Karmacoda spool out soulful electro-pop in a leisurely fashion. On tracks like "Motion Picture", the mellow, sensual groove feels like top shelf Depeche Mode. Icy synth swooshes and spare piano touches provide a skeletal framework upon which the dueling male and female vocals are free to writhe. Elsewhere, a nearly New Jack Soul takes precedence over goth, yielding radio-perfect numbers such as "Frail". While either end of the spectrum represented by these two songs would be enough for a fine album, the band goes one step further and integrates them time and again. In many ways, this makes Reco Mended feel like a retrospective of the past fifteen years of radio-friendly electro-pop. "A Desolate Heat" bolsters the spare, rolling rhythms of trip-hop with a vocal brimming with the sly, powerful sexuality of Garbage's Shirley Manson. "About the Day" plays a similar mix and match game by combining the soundtrack smoothness of a Moby instrumental with the playful mystery of Denmark's Gry. Because of the clean production and mid-tempo grinds, this album begs for radio play. This radio readiness, however, will probably put off some of the snootier listeners, for whom airplay is a sin far worse than mere poor quality. This is a shame, because the disc is nothing more than well-crafted, well-executed music -- not a desperate grab for stardom. True, it may lack the ugly edge of "underground" dance music, but this doesn't nullify the boundaries the band pushes. This is particularly evident in their choice of percussion sounds. Rather than relying on the standard drum machine presets, the trio turns these tasks over to a cornucopia of squishy and unusual sounds. Thus, while the mood evoked by the rhythms will be familiar to anyone who was alive during the '80s, the execution is something not found in most radio playlists. For this reason, the band's inventiveness may be lost in the immediate pleasantries of their music. Nevertheless, Reco Mended is an album packed with surprises as well as grooves."

Funky Stuff... Great Vocals

Tim the Enchanter | Stonehenge, England | 07/19/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I downloaded the MP3's and was very impressed. The samples sound very live and the music is complex... I enjoy bands like Beatnicks to Massive attack and this album is definitely "reco mended"!!"

Electronic beat generation

deljeff2 | Rochester, NY | 05/03/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I could be wrong, but for some reason just listening to this album makes me feel a bit more hip.On Recomended Karmacoda adds a kind of ambience throughout, either through the mixing of male and female vocals, the use of light piano, or other effects. Both singers have amazing voices, and the way they mingle or trade off in songs makes these tracks quite impressive.It's the little things that make them stand out from their contemporaries. The almost ambient-sounding piano that trickles throughout the mellow trip-hop of "Motion Picture" gives the song an almost otherworldly feel. There's almost an electronic world-beat feel to the ultra-cool instrumental "Amsterdam Room," which does have a European feel, and the dreamy, swirling, playful pop feel to "En Passing" makes it one of my favorite songs here. The closing "After That, Because of That" picks up on the same feel, with layered drum effects, vocals, and a very thick sound to give it a very unique and slick quality.Some tracks that Heather Pierce sings on tend to be most similar to Laika tracks, as her voice sounds very similar to Laika's Margaret Fiedler. There are enough unique flares - usually through some intriguing electronic sounds - to keep this from sounding too derivative. And the voices, the attitude, the atmospherics are beautiful. By the end of this album, I'm was completely sold. This is music for the electronic beat generation."