Though still referenced for his brief remix collaboration with Peter Kruder, Richard Dorfmeister’s partnership with Rupert Huber has proven more fertile than his previous. On the Viennese duo’s fifth studio album, their cerebral, piano-heavy, jazz-inflected formula for ambient music breaks very little new ground. But Tosca take baby steps away from the dub genre and scales back on bass sounds while moving closer into the world of live instrumentation.
The theme’zero worries’is a groovy antidote for the illness that has plagued downtempo as it becomes a ’90s relic. But, while the genre is fading fast in mind of pop-culture gluttons, pearls such as ‘Oysters in May’ remind us that there are still those who care about its preservation. ‘Elektra Bregenz’ distills Tosca’s formula down to a Euro-cooing woman asking if you’d like another wetnap. Strings flutter, guitar licks linger and a hint of samba shimmies in. Utterly charming and infinitely soothing.

RELATED POSTS:

No related posts.