Search - Love. & Rockets :: Hot Trip to Heaven

BRENDAN H. from PALO ALTO, CA
Reviewed on 12/16/2009...

man, this album stinks! seems the early to mid 90s was a bad time for music. can't stand the songs where they got on the 90s funky beat bandwagon - not the originators they're known for being. i wonder if they were on too many drugs out in LA for this album.

Hot tip to Heaven

Full Badger | London | 11/25/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Utterly brilliant. Dreamy, atmospheric, dark, spacey. Just plain gorgeous. Probably the album Dave had on his iPod as he lay in his bunk before HAL got bitchy. Natacha Atlas guests on 'Ugly' with her trademark arabic callings. All the tracks have simple riffs and hooks repeating over and over, weaving in and out of chilled soundscapes and cool loops. Only weak track is the title track (reminded me of Nitzer Ebb) not a bad track just broke up the overall feel of the album, so I skip that one.

A perfect album for the mp3 player, long flights, train journeys, or staring at the ceiling. Buy it now."

Way Underated - A Heavenly Joyride!

Rich Latta | Albuquerque, NM - Land of Entitlement | 09/28/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is a very cool album. Overall, it's very listener-friendly. It's feel-good club/dance music, clearly aimed at the MDMA crowd. At the time of its release (1994), it was lumped in with techno/house music and unfairly dismissed for being passe. Certain people back then were obsessed with being on top of the latest thing which could change almost on a weekly basis. That attitude has always existed and always will, but personally I couldn't care less about current trends so long as I like the music itself.



Love & Rockets have a knack for taking simple song structures and making them sound extremely cool. These guys are masters at creating trippy atmospherics and the songs here are far more interesting than your average repetitive club music, even (or especially!) today. I enjoy just hanging out and listening to this album. Most of these songs extend to around the seven minute mark but they never overstay their welcome.



BREAKDOWN:



"Body and Soul" - A fourteen-minute piece that slowly evolves from etheral murkiness and a ringing, bell-like synth figure into a hip-hop styled dance groove that doesn't kick in until midway through. Trippy and loaded with atmospherics. Feels GOOD! *****



"Ugly" - another atmospheric groover with a hip hop beat, hypnotic percussion and luscious female background vocals. *****



"Trip and Glide" - more of the same with a more relaxed tempo and cool guitar solos from Daniel Ash. Features several intense, heavenly song bridges. Guest singer Natacha Atlas really cuts loose on this one. By the way, she also made excellent contributions to Daniel Ash's super-cool 1991 solo album COMING DOWN. *****



"This Heaven" - hypnotic and sexy with a four-to-the-floor dance beat, scratchy guitar rhythms and strange locomotive sounds. *****



"No Worries" - A tripped-out transition segues the listener immediately into this track which has a radically different feel - slow and dreamy with eerie Middle Eastern touches. *****



"Hot Trip to Heaven" - An ominous, mechanical, somewhat grating track, It's hardly dancable and it does disrupt the flow of the album, but I think it's trippy and intense. But it isn't as listener-friendly as the other songs and some will find it too experimental for their tastes. ****



"Eclipse" - sort of a coda to the title track, this is a short, foreboding instrumental. ****



"Voodoo Baby" - Sporting a jazzy, cabaret-style groove, this track, like every song on HOT TRIP TO HEAVEN, is loaded with atmospheric effects. It's quite different from the other songs, but still blends into the album nicely. *****



"Be the Revolution" - a very trippy song with a slightly funky beat and a spindly guitar loop. *****



"Set Me Free" - a short track with a minimal beat awash in hypnotic sounds. Closes out the album in fine fashion. ****



It's true that HOT TRIP TO HEAVEN emphasises dance music over the pop songs typically featured on other Love & Rockets albums, but these are still actual SONGS with actual melodies, far from being boring or overly repetitive. This album never got a fair shake. Give it a shot, it's a lot of fun.

"