Banco De Gaia - You Are Here

Banco de Gaia's sixth studio is different than any of his previous releases. The difference is a focus on more upfront melody, and structured pop songs vice the ethnic ambience featured on previous efforts. The results are mixed. The outstanding opener, "Down From The Mountain", is a haunting epic more in what we're used to from previous BDG releases. A slow droning synth (almost cathedral in the mood it creates) is overlaid by a soothing, ethnic, almost child like vocal. Absolutely superb. The song eventually builds to an explosive conclusion that leads perfectly to the albums first single, "Zeus No Like Techno". A floor filling beat and grinding bass are overlaid with slashes of latin guitar strings. Very catchy indeed.

But here, things go a little south. "Waking Up In Waco" is just grating with it's hodge-podge samples and no real melody or groove, and "Gray Over Gray" is just irritating and boring. Very dissapointing after Jennifer Folker's gorgeous "Obsidian" performance. What happened?

Jennifer Folker contributes her voice again on "Tounge In Chic", which might be the closest thing Toby Marks' has ever written to a pop song. The bubbling synth, and verse/chorus (gasp!) song structure make for a very good, and very catchy tune. Here Jennifer Folker shines. The rest of the album is less descript, sounding more like filler from previous Banco albums. "Not In My Name" is good, but "We Are Here" and "Still Life" just don't really stand out as anything better than average. So, aside from the first two tracks, "Tounge In Chic", and "Not In My Name", nothing really caught my ear. Kind of dissapointing considering the scope of his previous work. For those unfamilier with Banco's previous work, try his Last Train to Lhasa or Big Men Cry albums instead.