Advanced Suite - Drifting

[Tsotsi]

Artist: Advanced Suite
Title: Drifting
Release: June 29, 2018
Label: Self Released

Tracklist:-

1. Are We Ready Now
2. Cant Complain
3. Dusk Dyea
4. E Lastik
5. Get Movein
6. H Go Lucky
7. It's The End
8. Microdice
9. Right!
10. Sk8'n
11. The Edge
12. The Feets
13. The Kaliedoscope
14. The Underground
15. Tilted 

Ah, smooth textured daydreams, with hills of the sweetest smelling grass you've ever smelt, trees with the low hanging fruits of temptation, and around it all, oasis' with the coolest mnost pure water you've dipped your little toes into. And what are we doing? Why we are drifting through it all, sometimes bumping along to the dubby atmospheres of ... sometimes seemlessly to the sweet sounds of Are We Ready Know.  Only one thing is certain, and that is that Advanced suite has got us covered, nay surrounded and eventually carried away by the cool echoey textured layers of his 15 piece album.

Influenced by just about everything, it's hip-hop- it's reggae, it's dub, it's psychedelic, it's gentle. That's right, It's all that. Best summed up by the Bandcamp description:-

It’s like a large pot that we all stir. 
I grab a piece, add my spice. And you do the same. 
Sometimes I’ll take a spice and add more flavor. And sometimes you do the same. 
In this way we feed off each other energy. Stirring the pot more and more. 
Each rotation sets the tempo and tone for the next spice. And each spice sets the tone and tempo for the next rotation. 
It’s boundary-less. Leaving plenty of room to push the envelope.

The opener Are we Ready now is brilliant in showing us what he is capable  of doing with sounds and samples. Can't complain is a more focused fluent piece with some hippity hop vocals drifting up and around the other layers. Dusk Dyea not only is a track with a cool name, but also a sparkly, deep bassy dubbed, dance number that gets you moving before you know what's what.

Hammocks are over-rated, they take serious practice. So sure, I guess you couuuuld enjoy E Lastik while having a lazy swing, if you've found a spot to practice while none of the dreadlocked masses watch on. Or you could play this sweet little thang poolside while you dip your tootsies in the water. Get Movein has slightly less going for it than the other tracks so far, it feels shorter and doesn't do much to pull me in. Do these track names have a secret meaning? Are they all play on words, I mean some of them i get, but H Go Lucky, I need that explained to me. I don't need anything else however, the track delivers dubby fun all around before it also ends prematurely.

It's The End has everything but an exclamation mark going for it. Not sure if i'm going to be delivered a country inspired dub number or a broody space odyssey. You don't have to wait long to find to find out that you can move to this track, though the background sweeps fill the track up just a little too much, i like my iced tea an inch from rim, not overflowing. The little speech and the piano however are nice and after the vocal break i'm back in happy drifting land. Next we get shifted back into the groove with Microdice, a groovy body swaying number that would be perfect for a daytime stomp in the dust. No messing around with the next track as we get """""Right""""" in and out with a 2 minute 41 track that takes me back to the sweet place at the start of the album. If it was just a little longer it'd be a favourite. 

Sk8'n (I 'get' that one) brings the album back to the soft dub that you can nod your head along to while vocals seep in and out of the other layers, a true dreamy piece of work. The first of the 'The' tracks comes along with The Edge, going in a more upbeat direction, the vocal sample is anything but distracting and worth it for the chants that come later, a great track for a beachside ritual sacrifice. The Feets continues on in a soft sweet dubby fashion with what sounds like some didgeridoo in the background. Set with it's own improper spelling (Hey I ain't no beter) The Kaliedoscope is the sort of happy little song you play on your way home from a 4 day festival in the Australian summer, a calming piece of music.  My favourite track from the album The Underground is up next, the 13 seconds of silence at the end might make you think that the album is over but no, you'd be wrong, up comes Tilted another banger of a track that closes the album off nicely.

 

Drifting is a soft airy filled dub piece by Advanced Suite that is true to it's title and description. While the album drops off a little in the middle i would still say its worth more than dribble of your grittle. What I mean is if you like dub and multi genre influenced music then this will be right up your alley. Oh and NYP so go for gold my friends.

https://advancedsuite.bandcamp.com/album/drifting