Besides being the driving force behind the U.K. dance music labels Simple and Aus, producer
Will Saul has released a slamming set of progressive house 12"s under his own name. Most of his 12" work is dark, sleek,
Deep Dish-esque, with a bit of
Mathew Jonson-y techno as well, but this
Saul project called
Close is often serene, mostly sumptuous, and sometimes even song-like, with various vocalists helping to make this something akin to a post-dubstep
Portishead. The opening "I Died 1000 Times" finds
Charlene Soraia offering sour times over
Saul's shag carpet of synth, while
Joe Dukie delivers some lost highway R&B on "My Way," a broken-hearted number that's one part
Massive Attack, one part
Moby.
Soraia's back for the sultry key cut "Beam Me Up," which sounds just like the succulent and soft stuff those blimps in Blade Runner broadcast, then futuristic reggae regular
Tikiman takes the album to the off-world tropics during "Born in a Rolling Barrel," a number that is as interesting and amusing as its name. Linking these vocal tracks are the producer's instrumental bits, like the misty evening called "Oscar" or the funky
Orbital-meets-
Burial cut dubbed "Cubizm," but they seem like sketches compared to the more standard songs, and suddenly, Getting Closer comes off as an undecided jumble of background and foreground music. Nice, but not necessary, this one falls somewhere between a promising debut and glossy, pretty wallpaper. ~ David Jeffries