BrightSide Blue 2018
Between Worlds
Unhurried rapture from Californian pair who captivate their environment with charm and dance.
It takes two to attain a balanced sensual delight, the point and the method declared by this duo’s 2017 debut EP “Two Hearts, One Take” and proven by "Wake To Dream" – singer Lindsay Bellows’ solo foray into soul which featured guitarist Ananda Vaughan anyway. Together, the couple’s songs demonstrate a lot more variety, with none of the five numbers on “Between Worlds” charting the same genre domain, although all of them reveal the little ensemble’s proclivity for a loose show tune.
There’s nocturnal, lounge feel to “Mama” whose intimate throb is smeared with piano splashes to turn domestic situation into a catwalk parade where jazzy scat and six-strings’ purr and scratching help get the apologetic message home, while “Whisper Willow” – a chance for Ayla Nereo to join in – is a mesmerizing stroll into reverie. If “Mustn’t It Be Me” amounts to mannerisms-enhanced chamber-folk ballad, rough drums contrasting stern cello to set some dramatic insistence in the piece’s flow, “Let Love Be Sown” defaults to refined reggae. Yet it’s passionate fado of “Canto Al Mar” that lets vocal force and guitar lace, given a kora-and-mandolin support, shine the brightest – in line with the duo’s very name.
If they’re able to bottle this spark for an album’s duration, it’s time to bring a longplay on.
****4/5
