If the previous single, ‘Digitally Modified‘, had an element of early eighties synth pioneering in its hypnotic and slightly mechanical ways, the new one, ‘you.Love’, echoes a different era, actually many different eras. Although the main riff, at least as it opens the song, has 70s disco vibes about it, as soon as the various sounds close in to add tone and texture to this core sound, a more blissed-out and ornate feeling evolves – one that wouldn’t have felt out of place in the heady, pre-Britpop days of The Hacienda of the early nineties.
There are echoes of when bands such as Primal Scream dropped acid and found god, or at least the god of House Music, to be found amongst ‘you.Love’s grooves and graces. There is a serene, worldly-aware vibe meshed with an electro-tribal beat that Enigma would have recognised, and fans of The Stone Roses‘ lusher and more lysergic moments will find plenty to love here, too.
Beats shuffle, liquid riffs groove, and the body of the song is built as much from the weaving of instrumental sounds and samples as it is from the meshing of vocals- not a cappella as such, but certainly leaning heavily into the idea of the voice as an instrument.
The great thing about ‘you.Love’ is that it reminds us that electronic dance music can still be clever and infectious, that not everything has to sound like a lowest common denominator, Ibiza dancefloor groover, all style no substance, that it can be every bit as progressive, every bit as forward-thinking, every bit as adventurous as any other genre.
And in the case of Co.LeGa, even more creative than most.
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