Booka Shade - The Sun & The Neon Light

The Sun and The Neon Light' is the German house duos third studio album. Booka Shade are known for a more 'minimal' sound but with this album they change things up a bit .

This time out they have added more depth to their sound. There are more acoustic elements, bass (lot and lots of bass!), guitars and live percussion. They use soft, often effect laden vocals (with mixed results) as well as seemingly more instrumental samples than you can count , which help fill the more danceable tracks along with wonderful bleeps, blips and clunks. Then in the more heady tracks the lush strings and sweeping build of the "whooooooosh" wash over you like ocean waves. There are tracks like 'Charlotte' that are the more upbeat and energetic of the bunch. Other tracks like 'The Sun and the Neon Light' are aimed at taking you on a journey through your emotions. 'Redemption' and 'Karma Car' are two other moody, rich and expressive tracks that would be great for any "third-eye opening" experience.

If you lay back and close your eyes while listening to this album it takes you back to the glory days of chill out dance music form The Orb, Orbital, The Future Sounds of London and Underworld (and just like underworld, they used to be a synth pop band in the late 80's). 'The Sun and The Neon Light' may not live up to their seminal album 'Movements', but it will still make a lot of folks very happy. This album is really geared more towards the headphone set rather than the club set, but with a few of the more "dance" oriented tracks and the remixes that will accompany the album, there should be something here for everyone.

7 out of 10