Sounds From The Ground formed in 1995 when core group members Elliot Morgan Jones and Nick Woolfson met through mutual friends in the London underground dance scene. With separate backgrounds in electronic music already be... more »hind them, the early results of their new collaboration showed S.F.T.G. to be purveyors of sophisticated ambient dub. The duo's very first recording together, a ten minute mini-epic entitled 'Triangle,' was released as a single on Universal Egg Records and described in a positive review by Melody Maker as one of the first "sexy ambient cuts." This initial effort was swiftly followed by a stunning new composition, 'Gather,' which firmly established the duo's writing and production skills, and it was not long before S.F.T.G. material was starting to be licensed by the likes of Coldcut's N-Tone label and Beyond Records for their 'Ambient Dub' series of compilations.« less
Sounds From The Ground formed in 1995 when core group members Elliot Morgan Jones and Nick Woolfson met through mutual friends in the London underground dance scene. With separate backgrounds in electronic music already behind them, the early results of their new collaboration showed S.F.T.G. to be purveyors of sophisticated ambient dub. The duo's very first recording together, a ten minute mini-epic entitled 'Triangle,' was released as a single on Universal Egg Records and described in a positive review by Melody Maker as one of the first "sexy ambient cuts." This initial effort was swiftly followed by a stunning new composition, 'Gather,' which firmly established the duo's writing and production skills, and it was not long before S.F.T.G. material was starting to be licensed by the likes of Coldcut's N-Tone label and Beyond Records for their 'Ambient Dub' series of compilations.
"Can you wear out a CD??? I have been playing this non-stop!! I loved Kin and Terra Firma ( wore those out too)..but this one feels more polished. It's spare in a really lush way, and more trippy than the others. More female vocals then the last, some remind me of Porteshead, some sorta Cocteau Twins, I even felt a little Madonna in there in a soft Massive Attack kind of way (track # 3). Even with all these resemblances...the music is still fresh and original. I like every track...how many Cd's can you say that about?The lyrics are actually meaningful, even uplifting, with out being sappy in the slightest. This music makes you feel good!Very cool. It's great! This CD is progressive, modern, trance, triphop, chill, groove and happening in a BIG WAY!BUY IT!"
Atypical, but excellent nonetheless.
om girl | 05/07/2003
(5 out of 5 stars)
"If you're a fan of Sounds from the Ground, take note that this sounds pretty much nothing like what they've done before. The biggest difference is the addition of the lazy-pop style vocals. At first listen, this sounds uninteresting and commonplace. Keep listening..... Yeah, that's it."
I prefer the earlier instrumental focused material.
chuggy | south of the border | 07/13/2003
(3 out of 5 stars)
"SFTG are awesome UK performers and you have to give them credit for always stretching, in terms of what they are doing musically, but to me this album is too vocal/pop oriented. It's probably partly because they wanted to reach a bigger audience but my taste lies with their more musically panoramic first two earlier releases, "Kin" and "Terra Firma." Both are brilliant and deserve to be added to your music collection!"
Who stole my group???
canadude | Vancouver, British Columbia Canada | 09/23/2003
(1 out of 5 stars)
"After making myself listen to this CD a few times, some of the tracks have definitely grown on me. I am still overall disappointed in this release. My suggestion: Consider listening to Natural Selection before buying it. I loved the other two SFTG CD's and immediately purchased Natural Selection the day it was released. Upon listening to it, all I could think of was that maybe the SFTG label was printed on someone else's CD. The female vocals on most of the tracks were a complete surprise to the legion of SFTG fans. It would be a fine CD if I thought it was another group's release. As it stands, I still find it sad to feel like I have lost a group who's music I loved."