Zero 7 - Simple Science EP

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  • When they broke through with their debut album, Simple Things, back in 2001, Henry Binns and Sam Hardaker's floaty downtempo marked them out as a Anglo version of Air, minus the extravagant fringes. Not too much has changed in their world since—until now, perhaps. Despite its four-year gestation, Simple Science isn't quite the tectonic shift it thinks it is, but it does make some determined sorties towards the dance floor. The title track starts promisingly enough, with bubbly arps and insistent synth stabs giving it some body, but Aussie singer Danny Pratt's falsetto and a naff little echo on the vocal makes it feel too poppy. "Take Me Away" nails its colours to the mast too forcibly in places—there are unsubtle hints of Michael Jackson's "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" running through it—but the second half, when the vocal subsides and a skeletal, dubby disco groove dominates, is better. The EP's purest moment is "U Know"—inspired, say Zero 7, by a visit to the Block 9 area at Glastonbury—which trades fairly well on huge, swollen chords, pitch-shifted vocals and the sort of dramatic crescendo that Groove Armada have long excelled in. And yet it says something that the most Zero 7-ish moment on the EP, "Red, Blue & Green," is the most memorable track, with shades of Orbital's "Chime" infecting its ambient tropes and twinkling synth interplay.
  • Tracklist
      A1 Simple Science A2 Red, Blue And Green (Dub Copy) B1 Take Me Away B2 U Know
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