Hey music lovers, its time for another plug and I have to say today’s feature could not have landed in my inbox at a better time. Recently, I have been in a funky, electro-house, urban dance listening frenzy and not only did it fill the void in my music library, its GOOD music too. With that I am ecstatic to plug to you LV + Joshua Idehen – Routes.
LV is a production trio out of South East London made up of members Will, Si and Gervase. The three members as you can imagine are all creatively different and their ability to aggregate those talents into crafting an artistic sound can be attributed to their musical success thus far. This recipe has worked over the years for the group gaining them a fan base, respect from record labels, DJs and also on to being mentored by Martin Clark - the UK bass critique, Rinse FM DJ and label boss of Keysound Recordings.
Their recent album Routes is a follow up to their previous EP 38 - both are released on Keysound Recordings. The EP 38 was named after the legendary London bus route 38 and with the new album Routes, it is clear the group is keeping up with references made to transport modes and direction within London. LV has previously worked with MCs such as Dandelion, Erol Bellot and other guest artists successfully but featured guest Joshua Idehen who took the vocal lead on 38 returns and does so again on the trio's new album Routes and plays the fourth member role pretty well... Without further ado, let's get into some music!
The first song I plug to you from the 12-track album Routes is the interesting 'Northern Line'. The track uses a blend of synthesizers, drums and hi-hats with a funky bass loop. When you also consider Joshua’s humorous lyrics, this makes for the complete groove tune. The song fits well with the album title Routes as the track progressively mentions the locations found on the northern line on London’s underground tube. service Luckily, I have been on the northern line one too many times to understand when Joshua asks, "what do you know about places such as Waterloo and Edgware?". And if you are no where able to ‘get on the northern line’, rhythmic body movements once you press play could get you a little closer.
Northern Line:
Northern Line:
The next song 'Melt' keeps up with the funky house music style featuring stints of spoken words from Joshua Idehen to make for the ultimate dance track. Instruments common in this genre of music such as a drum-kit and bass in addition to a ‘four to the floor’ uniform rhythm pattern are used and makes this one of the standout tracks on the album.
Melt:
Melt:
This last song 'Primary Colors' is more of an electro house dance song with a huge potential in the dance clubs. Sadly however, it is the shortest of all the tracks on the album running at only 1:59 minutes. Just as most tracks in this genre, the songs usually have fewer words with more emphasis on the electronically derived instrumentals. No different, the sole verse on 'Primary Colors' includes only two lines said repeatedly by Joshua Idehen. I included this track to showcase a different sound on the album, as I’m glad to see that the group can embrace diverse styles of music switching genres almost flawlessly.
Primary Colors:
Primary Colors:
All together, I got the impression the groups purpose was to make an album about London and its very creative sounds which they somewhat succeeded in doing. I think every city has its theme song, which I will leave for a later conversation, but if I had to pick one from this album I'd go with 'Northern Line'. Apart from that, I could not gain a cohesive meaning from the album but I guess that’s the beauty of the music where it is left to the listener’s interpretation and yours will almost certainly be different from mine or his or hers or theirs
On some rare occasions, Joshua’s poetic delivery do not mesh with the track all too well, for example on the song 'I Know' while 'Last Night' with its eerie unconventional sound-bed also stands to be an easy hit or miss. However I enjoyed listening to Routes and it is an all round solid effort from the production trio LV. Adding Joshua Idehen as the guest vocalist seems to be a match that has worked now, in the past and I’m almost certain we will be hearing more from their collaborative unit in the future.
On some rare occasions, Joshua’s poetic delivery do not mesh with the track all too well, for example on the song 'I Know' while 'Last Night' with its eerie unconventional sound-bed also stands to be an easy hit or miss. However I enjoyed listening to Routes and it is an all round solid effort from the production trio LV. Adding Joshua Idehen as the guest vocalist seems to be a match that has worked now, in the past and I’m almost certain we will be hearing more from their collaborative unit in the future.
Purchase: LV + Joshua Idehen - Routes (iTunes) // Amazon
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