- Last year Ra.H's ‘Fall Of Justice’ on Morphine was a stand out record with its sinister jazzy edge. Now his label comes with just their second release since then, the Upperground Orchestra's ‘Solaris Eremit’. If ‘Fall Of Justice’ was jazzy, then this is just jazz.
First up is the title track, a melancholy piece of downtempo dub with liberal amounts of sax. It's difficult to imagine dancing to this, but of course that's not everything. Sadly though it strays a bit too close to easy listening at times, with the impeccable production and real instruments washing away any sense of groove or rhythm. You want to praise the process, but the end result seems non-committal. The next track, ‘Orion’, is a little better. It's a tense and groovy piece of music that's quite cinematic. It begins with jazzy chords and serious strings, and like ‘Solaris Eremit’ it's dynamic as your average symphony. It's very far from the functionalism that usually characterises dance music, but some may find it all a little directionless.
Last up is Ra.H's remix of the title track. He grabs things by the scruff of the neck and makes it a much more urgent piece of dub house, bringing the tempo up and squashing the jazz-fest down to around six minutes. However it still sounds a little unwieldy, with so many sounds fighting for attention.
It's blatantly clear that all the artists involved with this EP can make immaculate deep jazzy soundscapes. The problem is they don't necessarily move the listener, except perhaps on ‘Orion’. And beautiful as they are, you feel a remix could bin half of the sounds on offer here and make a leaner, meaner record.
TracklistA Solaris Eremit
B1 Orion 419
B2 Eremit Version