Karma - Pad Sounds

Mellow downtempo from Karma, a pair of German loungesters. They mean to get you calm, and with their debut album, PAD SOUNDS, they succeed. "My Resting Place," for example, has a wiggyl bass and some streaking strings designed to get you all warm and comfortable. "Relax Yourself" is pretty much self-explanatory, using the same sample that Kid Loco utilizes in his filthy "Cum'on." Some of the tracks, while interesting, aren't quite fully developed: "Enter the Dragon" and "Ghia" are two examples. There's also an over-reliance on samples: as smooth as "Look Up Dere" is, it's mostly patched together from other tracks. This doesn't, however, detract from the overall listening enjoyment of this album. "Static Travelling" is a blissful journey (although perhaps a bit too long); the 10+ minutes of "High Priestess," however, rarely loses steam. The final track, "Dakini," is dark space trip. A strong overall effort.

This is a nice German DnB/TripHop-production. sometimes calm, sometimes hectic, but they always get their groove in a intellectual way. Good CD, recommended for everyone who's interested in such things.