OHM GURU – Echo

Ohm Guru first came to my attention via his releases for Irma, an Italian label of Italy’s electronic future. “Echo” marks his first major release and I was looking forward to hearing how the sound had evolved. My fave Irma artist, DJ Rodriguez, is on production duties so my hopes were high. To try and describe the sound, it’s a kind of fragile bossa/jazz driven electronica with a somewhat loungey feel at times. Reminds me of the funk/electronic soundtracks to 70’s Italian films.

All in all, I found this album a bit hard to get into, to be honest. The arrangements and production are tight without a doubt. Complex layering of the percussion and orchestral sweeps keeps you interested. In my opinion, the vocals were a little annoying, and if anything, detracted from the sound. But they work better on The Smiths cover ‘Please, please, please…’, a tune with a smooth piano undercurrent and a nice beat – an interesting rework of the original. The stand out track for me has to be tight ‘Silent Movie’, on this track the music and vocals work really well together – Nicky taking more of a backseat and augmenting the well constructed beats, rather than vying for attention with them. ‘Slide’ works it in a similar vein, with more traditional beats and acoustic guitar. ‘Luv and Pain’ has an atmospheric opening and smooth jazz sax vibe over the top. As the tune progresses it opens up more and is a smooth little groover.

Fitting nicely into the house-electro-jazz-coffee table niche (if there is such a thing?!), the rhythms are summery throughout. “Echo” becomes much better when the instrumentation takes over, showing off a good percussion and atmospherics, but never really finding that ‘broken beat’ vibe it seems to be pursuing. On the whole, “Echo” can become a bit too housey for my taste at times, and lacks an edge to it. I am a fan of the bossa/jazz/dnb/electro stuff coming out on Irma but this album never really gets going for me. For a better look at the scene I’d check Ohm Guru’s 1996 album “Groove Improver” on Irma US, or better still, the DJ Rodriguez debut ‘Worldwide Funk” instead.