Casting Couch (2013) Unrated

After 8 solo albums for Island Records culminating in the huge commercial success of 'Riptide', Robert Palmer found a new recoring home with EMI in 1988 with the release of 'Heavy Nova', but what hadn't changed was his very diverse range of material and styles, from self-penned rockers and ballads to covers of heavy funk and Tin Pan Alley. Heavy Nova includes the enduring smash hit single 'She Makes My Day'. 'Don't Explain' followed in 1990 and was also typically multi-faceted, presented in two parts: the first a rocking guitar-led set of songs, and the second half a soundtrack to an ambitious planned musical. 'Don't Explain' includes the hits 'Mercy Mercy Me/I Want You' and the collaboration with UB40, 'I'll Be Your Baby Tonight'. The ten bonus tracks include remixes and non-album single tracks.

On his 2013 release The North Borders, British producer Simon Green (aka Bonobo) continues along the organic-meets-electronic path that his 2010 release Black Sands followed, but this walk takes place as it's turning to dusk, and there are varying degrees of mist and chilliness along the way. Opener "First Fires" with Grey Reverend (singer/songwriter L.D. Brown) sounds like it could be quite warm, but it's entirely autumn-minded sweater music that wistfully wonders what to do with "faded dreams" as Green allows bits of glitchy sunlight to shine through his cloudy synth construction. "Emkay" is the clangs and echoes of a seaside port at night that wonderfully shuffles its way up to a lighthouse tune, then there's majestic songstress Erykah Badu wonderfully vibing ("We don't need no truth/Got plenty/Now it grows on trees") on "Heaven for the Sinner" over Bonobo's deep version of the broken beat. "Towers" suggests sleepy urban buildings in twilight with a vibraphone representing the little bits of life and light that will sparkle through the night, while "Don't Wait" is just before the dawn, as innocent chimes chase away the eerie things that lurk in the darkness.

More than the compilation series, more than the lovingly organised events, more than the radio shows: "Le Café Abstrait" is a philosophy of lifestyle: relaxed and culturally open-minded.
It was "Le Café Abstrait" and its mastermind, Raphaël Marionneau, who pioneered chill-out culture at Hamburg's internationally renown Mojo club in 1996: "Le Café Abstrait" reinvented nightclubbing in a new relaxing way. Once a month, stylish sofa installations and light projections transformed Mojo's dancefloor into a gigantic living room. There, up to 400 laid-back nightlife connoisseurs indulged in relaxation and Raphaël Marionneau's very special downtempo music selections. A new lifestyle was born: the couch culture…