Fragile State - Voices From The Dust Bowl

I loved Fragile State's debut, _The Facts and the Dreams_, so much that I was afraid their follow up, _Voices of the Dust Bowl_, might suffer from raised expectations. Well, yes and no. The mellow dreaminess is still wholly evident from the first track, "Four-Four-Four," but what weakens this album in comparison to the first one is a touch of self-indulgence. "Four-Four-Four," for example, would have been perfect at half its length. That's not to say, of course, that I dislike the album. It has a good number of excellent tracks, like the descending jazz of "600 Bliss" or the ambience of "Paper Smile." Fragile State excels, in addition, at integrating curlicues of world music without seeming patronizing: the mysterious vocals and didgeridoo in the melancholy "Cleo" add to the atmosphere; the recycled vocal of "Overcurrent" blends into the jazzy breaks. A completely enjoyable experience, despite my own expectations.

Jumping right into it, the opener of this album Four Tet Voices from the Dustbowl is a nice pop dreamy downbeat track. The basic sound of this first song continues as the theme for the whole disc. Soundtrack-like soundscapes that remind you of a young John Barry. Fragile State is Neil Cowley, keyboarder with Zero 7, and Ben Mynott, a music journalist with the Blues and Soul Magazin. That also might explain why the debut-album from Fragile State was voted Downtempo album of the Year 2002 in the B&S Magazine. But rightously so; the music is of high quality and can compare to similar acts like Thievery Corporation easily. It shoud also be mentioned, that Ben Mynott has a CD-Compilation titled Just Got Home: Fragile State that he put together and has been released. Songs included are from The Egg, Thievery Corporation, and Cocteau Twins.
-c- ToxicTwinz