Spa Moans — Obedient Vibration
The opening title track is a one minute of digitised oration of the title, so lets skip over that. Breathy vocals, mixed with swathes of ambient tones and beats all subtly intertwining and given more reverb than is healthy make this album sound like a cross between Seefeel and Sade.
The repetitive beats and synth refrain on track two “Wet Goddess” are almost perfect for the afterhours come down. This just floats in a space where Jennys vocals play happily. There’s a breathiness that you don’t get bored of hearing.That breathiness continues, literally, into track three which opens with (you guessed it) breathing: “Opaque” has the dub bass and hand clap beat to just keep the mood happy, and the tempo slow before the synth line comes in to just lighten the mood.
After the first four tracks this album changes slightly (mainly because you move onto side two) to bring in some almost industrial samples into the mix. The atmosphere isn’t quite as ambient as side one, however we are still keeping this slow and simple in the tracks construction.
Although the tempo does double in speed half way through “Under The Veil”. This isn’t a criticism, but there is little in the way of movement and as the album moves forward you are left feeling something is missing.
Each track is lovingly prepared and presented. The album itself is an enjoyable listen, but there’s nothing to grab you, nothing to make you want to hear the album again and again. Its good, it’s just not brilliant. I suppose it’s not meant to be though, it’s a mixtape to end the evening, for those small hours when you want something, but not something that’s going to involve you thinking or moving. And Obedient Variations does this well, and stays on track.