Bitter:Sweet - The Mating Game/The Remix Game
Sep 21, 19:39 by Stefan KoopmanschapWhen a new act stands up in the area of downtempo and trip hop music, this usually results in comparing them to Massive Attack, Portishead and such well-known acts. Usually, this is a lot of honor for such artists, but on the other side adds a cliche to the review. I’ll do the same thing here.
The Mating Game is the album with the original Bitter:Sweet tracks, and was released in 2006 by Quango records. Bitter:Sweet is a duo: Kiran Shahani doing the music and Shana Halligan on vocals. This combination works perfectly, and the music has a very laidback sound. Less Portishead, but a more uplifting sound that may remind people of Hooverphonic. But comparing Bitter:Sweet to such acts is too little credit: Bitter:Sweet has it’s own sound and comes across much stronger in my opinion than some of the more popular bands released by the bigger labels.
Tracks like The Mating Game, Bittersweet Faith and Our Remains (which picks up a slightly more uptempo feeling) are standing out, but only just that little bit: This whole album has a certain solid feeling that you can’t shake off.
The Remix Game is not just any remix album either. Even though in the case of a remix album usually the strength is made by the remixers, maybe the effect that Bitter:Sweet has on me also carried towards the remixers, because The Remix Game is nearly as strong and solid as The Mating Game.
The Remix Game features remixes of the tracks of The Mating Game by such artists as Thievery Corporation, Nicola Conte, Skeewiff and Blackbeard. It takes the music of Bitter:Sweet in a slightly different direction (as it should), but the twists of the remixers definitely add something to the music as well. The jazzy feeling of Nicola Conte’s remix of Heaven, for instance, or the dreamy, bit funky take of Thievery Corporation on Bittersweet Faith.
My conclusion is very simple: Here is the promise of a big act somewhere in the future. If Hooverphonic can get big, if Massive Attack can get big, why not Bitter:Sweet? They add something to the musical spectrum that keeps music interesting. It’s just a matter of time…
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