This album leaves a very mixed impression with me. There are things which shine outrightly, others which appear out of place and boring.
The tunes on the album appear as a mixture of (mostly programmed?) drums, electric bass, keys (mostly electric piano), some sax lead voices and a granish of synth and arpeggiator textures, electronic percussive noises and electronic percussion.
There are things which are musical, clever, capturing - the combination of a simple, yet deceptive drum beat, combined with a counterpoint of programmed percussion, changing synth arpeggios, and an outstanding use of the bass guitar (does the artist play bass as his main instrument?). Then there are sax and keyboard leads which...well, basically, suck.
With that combination, I simply don't know where to put this album. The disturbing (in a negative way) solo breaks make it unusable as some lounge music, which the rest of the art (including great sonic production) would otherwise hint at. Then again, as a "more than lounge" (electronic) jazz record, the absence of capturing melodies and lead breaks makes it a no-go.
With that, even the nice cover art can't really save the show...as I said, I'm torn apart by this album, hence the rating of "dead center".
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