ALBUM REVIEWS |
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| CHUNGKING ‘WE
TRAVEL FAST’ (TUMMY TOUCH) out now |
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Either way, the blissed out soul is what we are interested in here. Singer Jesse Banks has a gentle voice reminiscent of Morcheeba’s Skye Edwards but more breathy, if that is possible. The opening track ‘Making Music’ is a nostalgic soul tune that lets the listener know what the band like to do with their time. The lyrics are very honest and the overall effect very pleasant - an adjective that can be employed when describing most of the other songs on this album. ‘We Love You’ is a bit more swinging, with interesting sounding instruments and an element of funk. ‘World Of A Thousand Suns’ is probably the best track on the album, again employing decent effects with an uplifting albeit understated chorus. Which is really the thing with Chungking. Its like the dial marked ‘funk’ has been turned down to eight accidentally. The album would definitely benefit from at least one jump-up-get-down-hit-me-with-your-rhythm-stick tune to balance the niceness, and the quality of the vocals and competency of the song writing would suggest that Chungking can do it. ‘Let The Love In’ would perhaps be that tune if they let go and gave it a bit of a remix. But, as with many other bands, the live stage is probably where they can do this. Whatever they are holding back in the studio will hopefully be absent when they play this year’s Big Chill and then maybe the band will stop ‘p-arsing’ around. Geddit? (sorry). words: Robin Harris
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Chungking
should be a word on Call My Bluff. Guess the correct definition.
1. A South Pacific cooking pot 2. A term describing the intermediate
step before full parsing, or 3: A band from Brighton who play blissed-out
soul. If you went for 3 then you would be right. If you went for
2, what the hell does parsing mean?