Description
- Looking back [6:31]
- Games without frontiers [5:50]
- Re-awakening the spirits [5:56]
![MP3 soundclip of Re-awakening the spirits [1:39]](/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/m3u.gif)
- The spaces in between [5:11]
- At the waters edge [7:28]
- Rafiki (township mix) [5:38]
- Dreams of olduvai [4:51]
- Without within [4:45]
- Confluence [6:47]
- Rafiki (sidewalk mix) [6:21]
- When the rains came [5:44]
Electronics combined with World sounds
San Francisco Examiner –
Tribal rhythms first developed in the arid deserts of Africa meet the digital age on the fourth album from London producer Bob Holroyd. Mixing equal parts way-back-when and totally-now, way-over-there and right-here, Holroyd provides evidence of music’s ability to cross both generations and borders, creating a soothing, timeless and omnicultural strain of exotic ambient.
2003. San Francisco Examiner
DEREK RATH / Beat Magazine –
Bob Holroyd, a British electronic musician, has garnered heaps of respect for his ability to conjure breathtaking, otherworldly soundscapes from a fusion of live and computer based sources.
The opening cut is a great example; with the bedrock of a Kalahari Bushmen song, it slowly infuses a mesmerizing electronic backdrop that makes the whole thing shimmer like a desert mirage, totally sympathetic to the source and an enhancement of the message of the plight of the dwindling Bushmen (Holdroyd also includes liner notes explaining his modus operandum and intentions). To call Bob Holroyd a world musician would be a mistake and would miss the point. While he does use instruments, voices and samples from all over the world, he is creating abstracted and almost utopian visions independent of the real world. Whether it be the haunting ambiance of tracks like At the Waters Edge, The Spaces Between and Without Within or blistering percussion driven cuts like Confluence or the two completely different takes on Rafiki, he fuses unlikely sources with electronics, funk and jazz elements that are both logical and surprising.
There is soul in abundance throughout, but the soul of spirituality and a passion of purpose. The word vision is not inappropriate to describe the music of Bob Holroyd as it is rather like listening to a movie. With a small coterie of live musicians and collaborators (special mention has to go once again to the extraordinary bass lines of Doug Sinclair and the horns of Kevin Robinson and Fayvaz Virji), he continues to create genre bending music of the highest calibre that should be enjoyed by everyone on the planet.
2003. DEREK RATH / Beat Magazine
Midwest Record Recap –
Sincere globe trotting and mind expansion. A tasty, wild set that open eared world beaters will find enticing.
2003. Midwest Record Recap