LAROCA – FRIENDS IN FARAWAY PLACES (JUST MUSIC)
May 16th, 2006 by rui
There are some essentials for every summer. A healthy supply of suncream; a ticket for a topnotch festival or two; and a new LP of warm, rolling chill-out sounds – awash with slinky basslines, Rhodes piano and epic cinematic splendour. Five years after the ‘Now That’s What I Call Ministry of Chill Out’ mix phenomenon threatened to kill the genre altogether, the classic chill-out formula still seems to dish up a classic album or two each summer, as soon as the blossom hits the trees. The Egg, Fragile State and Bonobo have all taken their turns at raising the flag in recent years, and in 2006 it is Laroca who look set to hold it highest.
Friends in Faraway Places – the debut album from Rob Pollard, Olly Wakeford and friends – has been awaited with some anticipation around Planet Big Chill, and it doesn’t disappoint. Laroca have found a natural home for their sound at Just Music where they stand – or rather sway in a louche manner – alongside rising ambient megastar Jon Hopkins and a cocktail menu of beach-friendly sunset groovers.
After a teasing instrumental intro, Friends in Faraway Places bursts into life with ‘Looking Like Lions’, a hugely enjoyable and (almost) funky adventure soundtrack carried by Olly’s flute and an unmissable joie de vivre. I love the left-turn from there into ‘Generalife’, led by a slice of reinvented library music sounds worthy of King of Woolworths himself.
With occasional forays into vocals sung or rapped by MC Mantmast and Anna Snowman, the album slides beautifully on a lazy groove from thereon in. Personally I’m more comfortable with the instrumentals. The voices on ‘Latin’ and ‘Daa Daa Shuffle’ in particular demand attention, but seem just too eager to be liked. The instrumental subtleties and swells of ‘Sinbad’ or the mariachi-tinged ‘Flamboyant’ are perhaps more quietly effective.
And who cares. By the time you’ve kicked out to the irresistible blissed-out drift of ‘Pastoral’, you’ll be long past worrying about which tracks work best. Lie back and pour yourself a long one – Laroca have just made your summer.
Enchanted Gordon
‘Friends in Faraway Places’ by Laroca is out now on Just Music.
