Singita Miracle Beach 10th Anniversary celebrates ten years of music on the beach at sunset—jazz- and tiki-tinged lounge, easy-swaying house, smooth funk and chill-out music of a high, consistent quality, despite the large array of contributing artists.
[Release page] Light entertainment for sultry, seductive salt air. Singita Miracle Beach is a health, recreation and relaxation spa on Italy´s Tyrrhenian coast, catering to well-heeled, well-behaved young hedonists. The album celebrates ten years of music on the beach at sunset—jazz- and tiki-tinged lounge, easy-swaying house, smooth funk and chill-out music of a high, consistent quality, despite the large array of contributing artists, the vast majority of whom I must confess never having heard before—in fact, only The Grid and Russian duo SCSI-9 are familiar to me.
Two compact discs compiled separately by José Padilla, Ibizean legend behind the six first Cafe del Mar compilations, and Glass Coffee (who appears to also go under the name Anton G), one of Singita’s resident DJ’s, who both pour expertly layered cocktails, heaviest sweet liqueur topped with lighter ones, sea breezes underscored by Mediterranean dub and and clever ideas like “Jimmy’s Laughing” by Lee Burton, and an occasional infusion of humour, on full, technicolour display on “Love House of Love” by Being Borings. The weirdness of closing with Brassroots’ brass (and saxophone) cover of a techno tune, “Good Life” by Innercity, is a question mark that quickly straightens out into an exclamation point.
Glass Coffee offers a kind of downtempo, folky side, as acoustic guitars and earnest vocalists are only lightly drizzled with electronics. A couple of inoffensive love songs pass before Nu (Rolf Fabian Laumer) cleverly loops of the first, tentative bars of Bob Dylan’s “Blind Willie McTell” over almost ten minutes, a surprising gloomy entry on a soundtrack for sun-worshippers. Only APO reaches for the moon with “Fine Particles” featuring real and fictional space voyage snatches, but we are soon brought back down to earth. Long stretches of this side pass by without leaving much of an impression, the penultimate, gorgeous trumpet-led easy-listening “Riviera Singita” by Chris Coco is one tune that grabs the attention.
Perfectly stylish, undemanding music, because even though the sun’s gone down, it’s still pretty humid.
Singita Miracle Beach 10th Anniversary is available on Klik. [Release page]
