Chaos In The CBD and their debut album is visceral ambient relaxing tones on a skeleton of hard irresistible dance grooves.
A Deeper Life is anchored in the brother duo’s birthplace and upbringing in New Zealand.
Louis Helliker-Hales and Ben Beans Helliker–Hales grew up in Auckland’s North Shore. The parents were music-obsessive fans and that led to an eclectic array of musical influences for the brothers.
We listened to everything. Absorbed the classic synth-driven Dance and Techno sounds of halcyon British music. You can hear some of the DNA of Joy Division and Cure.
Immersed in House music and have developed their signature sound whilst based in London for the last ten years or so. The Peckham scene as epitomised by breakout EP Midnight in Peckham (2015).
Opening songs Down by The Cove and Mountain Mover and immediately this does sound like a love letter to their home country.
Waves washing rhythmically, bird sounds and a sun-drenched atmosphere. High keening tones recalls Dolphin’s Smile from the Notorious Byrd Brothers of 1968. Deeper Life shares a lot of the peaceful calming grooves of that seminal work.
Underpinning all tunes are the chill effects of minimalist drone beats and solid framework funky bass lines.
Maintaining My Peace and the first guest vocalists appear with Grime MC Novelist and Stephanie Cooke. Soul Jazz with some soft Rap and nice harmony vocals. Too long wasted on vanity. The bass delivers in Bernard Edward’s Chic fashion.
Tears feature Saucy Lady and a smooth soul vocal reminiscent of Linda Womack, as she accuses pointedly, you’ve been using me/ tears are falling, falling.
Music is nicely layered, and the hooks insinuate in a hypnotic fashion.
A standout song is Love Language and the muted saxophone tones of Nathan Haines. Underpinned by a solid and agile bass, Haines plays lyrical flights which flourish and excite.
Just as good is Tongariro Crossing. Haines playing a flute counterbalanced by a judicious trumpet. While this may be pastoral Jazz, it really does evoke a spectacular landscape filled with seductive bird choruses.
A great vocal adorns I Wanna Tell Somebody. Josh Milan sings like Marvin Gaye being sexy and loving. The surrounding music is ambient and atmospheric in the style of What’s Goin’ On. A whole lotta love and the percussion gets the hips moving an onto a dance floor. Or a beach in Ibiza.
Love themes dominate More Time. Soul becomes texture and carefully layered with Lee Pearson providing the vocals.
Title track A Deeper Life. A percussion drone, and a free-floating trumpet by Isaac Aesili, a New Zealand DJ, producer and multi-instrumentalist.
Chill music which appears to break the shackles of a dance floor and evokes gently rolling surf. The sun becomes the strobe light. Freedom of movement, freedom of space.
Marlboro Sounds is also a nod to the cigarette fetish of Beans. Clearly from Balearic House style of Ibiza. Hypnotic and soothing and pastoral again as it links into the spectacular Marlborough area.
Ambient dance music underpinned by Jazz and Soul. Somewhere in there is a debt to Brian Eno and his series of early Ambient albums from the late Seventies.
Textured and layered music like this, A Deeper Life from Chaos In The CBD is an album which quietly lays it’s hooks into the listener.
Rev. Orange Peel
