Simple Things - Zero 7

Zero 7's 'Simple Things' was released last year to much acclaim. Garnering a Mercury Music Prize nomination, as well as many 'album of the month' awards, it will probably go down in history as one of the finest British chill-out albums ever. The London based duo of Sam Hardaker and Henry Binns manage to combine soothing strings with some modern electronica to provide some truly beautiful music. 'Simple Things's opener, 'I Have Seen' is a wistful ...
...moody vocals from Mozes. Sounding as though it's straight from the end credits of an old film, it sets the tone for the rest of a magnificent album. 'Polaris' continues the silver screen theme with a plush musical landscape, with some gorgeous strings once again taking centre-stage. An instrumental, it is reminiscent of Air, and is about as smooth a song as you will ever hear. 'Destiny' is perhaps the highlight of the album, and is certainly the ...

stoffy 11.10.2002 · Read full review
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Review of Simple Things - Zero 7

...woven over the top of simple but engaging basslines. Glorious rising, floating harmonies are juxtaposed with slightly darker, more bass-driven tunes. In terms of musical innovation, this could be as important to the dance world as Blue Lines was all those years ago. It's THAT good. It's hypnotic, subdued, trance-like music - you couldn't really dance to any of this, it really is for relaxation. But unlike so much of this chillout dross that's being ...
...individual. The eleven seperate tracks form a very soothing, beautiful album that improves with every time you listen. It has very broad appeal, young and old will find it equally engaging, and it spans a great number of musical tastes and genres. In all, this is one of the most interesting, innovative and beautiful albums in recent years, and I highly recommend it to anyone. Awesome. ...

james.bridgeman 24.09.2001 · Read full review
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Review of Simple Things - Zero 7

...The only unfortunate thing about Simple Things is that it can be quite repetitive. Can be quite repetitive. Repetitive. Repetitive. But not in an annoying way. It's quite soothing, and there's only so much that can be done with chill-out music! 05. Simple Things The title track certainly does go freely and willingly in to your deeper psyche. Pleasuring your mind slowly and very tastefully. The exact female voice jumps out at you, and still remains ...
...downtempo formula, and making it damn great. 06. Red Dust Strummings, and hummings with piano and pleasure. All in the mix to create some red dusty substance. Electronic FX please the mind, and play with it slowly. 07. Distractions Can't think up a great deal to say about this track, but great none-the-less. 08. In the Waiting Line Very similar to 'Simple Things', but subtle lyrical changes, or you couldn't tell the difference. Which is no ...

bigbtommy 30.09.2001 · Read full review
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Review of Simple Things - Zero 7

...and then their debut album Simple Things last summer. Simple Things is a collection of soul and jazz influenced grooves that are tinted with harder edge electronica and trip-hop. From start to finish, the order of the day is simple: well thought out and uplifting melodies, some great harmonies and baselines and an almost undetectable sprinkle of quirkiness throughout. The album starts brightly with I Have Seen, a slow but definite introduction with ...
...over the next two tracks, Simple Things (again featuring Mozez) and the instrumental Red Dust that it does so. Simple Things is probably the darkest track on the album with a deep resounding drum accompaniment and a defeatist melody, whereas Red Dust is much more simplistic in its approach almost feeling RnBish at times with its bouncy rhythm but with the cosmic synths and piano backing it up it doesn't get on your nerves too much. Both tracks are ...

craiggy_boy 28.03.2002 · Read full review
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Review of Simple Things - Zero 7

...same and was initially disappointed. Simple Things has however grown on me over time. Simple Things was a 2001 Mercury Prize nominee and is characterised by its downtempo, extremely chilled tracks. 4 of the 12 tracks are purely instrumental. There is a strong jazzy feel with frequent use of rhodes, ambient soundscapes and beautiful melodies that develop over time. Comparisons are made with Air but I personally much prefer the more melodic sound ...
...background of each track. Simple Things kicks off with the excellent "I Have Seen" featuring the vocals of Mozez. This is one of my favourite tracks because of the drumming, addictive bass/rhodes melody which repeats again and again putting you into a chilled out trance and reinforced with the lyrics "I have seen time go so slow, days come and go", the sweeping strings, ambient sounds woven throughout the track and the acoustic guitar strumming ...

music-mad 02.01.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Simple Things - Zero 7

...started with Zero 7 - Simple Things. The album is comprised of both songs and plain musical pieces (can't remember the word I wanna use here.. answers on a postcard please) and is arranged perfectly, blending the two together to create a fair seamless album. I normally have a preference for playing CDs in random order, but this, like Play by Moby, has to be played in sequence! All the tracks work together so well it's hard to highlight any in particular. ...
...I love some of the plain musical tracks like Red Dust stand out. The best is the first though. A very mellow song called I Have Seen. As a debut album, this is fantastic! I can see why my mate was raving about it when he first got his mittens on it! It's very similar in ways to the work of Air. More Moon Safari than 10,000Hz Legend though! ...

poodu 02.01.2002 · Read full review
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Review of Simple Things - Zero 7