Title - ‘Beneath The Surface’ (RCA Victor)
Artist - Balligomingo
When you look at the debut albums of some of the great Trance bands, you find music that really seems to be looking for a direction. Enigma's MCMXC A.D. is a good example of this. Unlike later albums, like The Screen Behind The Mirror that have a very definite theme throughout, MCMXC A.D. jumps around a lot and contains few of the things that have become Enigma trademarks. Balligomingo's Beneath The Surface has a very definite feel to it. It's the kind of audible hallucinogen that put Delirium, Enigma, and Enya on the map, and has, fittingly, found a place in the Pure Moods archive. ('Purify' is on Pure Moods IV.) But Balligomingo's electronic feel sends the CD off-course from the long-walk-in-the-woods sound of its Pure Moods brethren. Actually, several of the songs are far more reminiscent of Sasha, Chicane, or Zero7. But comparing Balligomingo, as an artist, to any of these people would first of all be incorrect and secondly premature. Beneath The Surface is an incredible CD, but the songs do really blend together. Whether this is created by illusion through gentle song transitions or whether the songs are really just variations on a theme. The CD ultimately is what albums like Ultra Chilled and Chillout 2002 claim to be. Balligomingo's Beneath The Surface, while lacking the kind of musical diversity that makes singles, is the best ‘chillout’ album I've heard all year !
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