Thunderball is icy hot!

Was listening to one of my chillout stations on Last.fm and came across a great track by Thunderball named "On the Sly" from their "Scorpion Rising" album.

Checking out their Myspace page, it seems like they enjoy putting some great bossa themes in their music. Just the name Thunderball conjures up images of James Bond and the 1965 classic movie and this music is a great replica of the music from that time.

If this music were for a spy film soundtrack, "On the Sly" would be the moment where the superspy has his encounter with a sexy adversary. The track is built around two echoing synth melodies with some bluesy electric guitar mixed in. It vaguely reminded me a bit of the Lethal Weapon soundtrack when I heard this one.

"Chicachiquita" featuring Miss Johnna is a light bossa-flavored track with a great groove and features a jazz flute intertwined with some electronic sounds and a soft guitar in the background.

"Thunder in the Jungle" begins with the sound of a driving storm broken in by some funky guitar and scathing trumpet hits. These guys specialize in chillin', in my opinion, but this is a great upbeat dance track.

"The Road to Benares" was the first one to play on their MySpace page for me and immediately reminded me of David Holmes' work on Ocean's Twelve. It has a great percussive beat with middle eastern sitar and other strings throughout. Again it brought to mind the spy movie where our hero descends upon Morocco to chase the world-class criminal.

If you're looking for some great atmospheric chillout music, check out the cinescapes of Thunderball!

Keep chillin'

Chris

Beautiful Randomness = Boomclick

Beautiful Randomness

While chillin on a lunch break the other day a track by Boomclick came on my random chillout playlist on iTunes.

Stone Tape (found on Chillout Sessions- Volume 5) has a great intro with synth keys and the static-y sound of presumably a radio searching for a station. It periodically finds a station and you briefly hear a man’s voice. There is some great sounding guitar and strings interspersed within the track to go along with a bossa nova sort of beat. It’s a great track and I could listen to it on repeat all night. The keys at one point sound very similar to Zero 7’s chord progressions, but it could just be a fortunate coincidence.

After researching a bit more about the band, I found a video for their track “High Tide.” It's a a lighter track with a medium paced beat and accompanied by Rosa Fernandez' beautiful light vocals. The video really stands out though. It appears to be a really tall man walking down the street and people smiling at him (into the high camera's point of view). At the end, the camera finally shows the man and also his son that has been sitting on his shoulders the whole time. So cute!

Sometimes- The most played track on Boomclick Soundsystem's MySpace page seemed very similar to Portishead’s darker style. The ghostly synth tones are backed by snare drum rim taps. It evolves into a more complex track with more electronic sounds added as it moves along. Fernandez’ vocals are stripped down and then are added to as the song progresses. What a beautiful voice she has!

I definitely recommend checking them out!

Boomclick is:

DJ's-

Paul Burnley

Sam Johnson

Rui Teimao

Vocals-

Rosa Fernandez- on myspace- www.myspace.com/rosavox

Boomclick Soundsystem is a project of Rui and Rosa and are on myspace at- http://www.myspace.com/boomclicksoundsystem

Keep Chillin'

Chris

Around Midnight

Coming up with grand ideas for blog entries can be difficult at times. I've encountered a bit of writer's block recently and have had a hard time deciding what to write about.

I recently got a direct message on Twitter from @alexhudish requesting a write up on his new project "Around Midnight." This message made my decision a lot easier, especially after listening to a few of the MP3 previews at the Around Midnight website.

The first track on the preview playlist is "Even So", a relaxing, ambient track with a catchy guitar melody, soothing keys, and a potpourri of electronic-ambient sounds.

"Between Sounds" features delicately beautiful piano playing and an orient-like synth melody (kept thinking of Nintendo video game music for the synth part at times).

"Premonition" is a VERY well done track. A quiet bass intro is proceeded by more terrific piano playing and a great drum track. The synth adds nicely to the music and it builds to a big sound, which reminded me a bit of Ulrich Schnauss' style of electronica. This was my favorite of the four tracks I previewed.

"ElectroPositive" is a fun, uptempo track with lots of great electronic and guitar sounds mixed together with a great dance beat. The outtro gently fades out with waves of ambient synth chords and ends abruptly making you want more.

Alex's piano playing is superb and is the highlight of this great electronic chillout music. I highly recommend picking up his album available for download at Amazon, iTunes, etc.

Keep chillin'

Chris