Reviewed by Ian Phillips.
By Subjective, Sony Music Entertainment 2019.
In my earlier life as a drama teacher I was always on the lookout for music I could use for training, or to form the basis of movement pieces.
This music has to have certain qualities that is missing in most popular music.
It is mostly instrumental and it must provoke imagery and/or the impetus to move.
I regularly used the work of Brian Eno because his ambient albums met all the criteria.
Act One – Music for inanimate objects is an album that I would recommend to anyone involved in dance, drama and theatre because it is drenched in imagery.
Most of the tracks are instrumental and made up of slow movements that develop multiple rhythms.
Subjective is a collaboration between Goldie and James Davidson.
British born Goldie is a celebrated graffiti artist/actor/musician who has worked with some of the art’s best known names including David Bowie and Noel Gallagher.
He first came to the attention of the music press when his 1995 debut album, Timeless, went platinum, the bass and drums scene’s first album to do so.
Goldie is a multi-talented artist who refuses to be pigeon-holed.
He has appeared in films alongside David Bowie in Everybody Loves Sunshine and also had a role in the bond movie The World Is Not Enough as well as appearing in the long running British soapy EastEnders.
James Davidson is a revered producer in the British dance and groove scene and released his music through his band Metalheadz.
Together the two have created an album that is uncompromising as it fuses ambient sounds with classical and electronic music, as well as a variety of samples and vocals from Natalie Duncan and Tyler Lee Daly.
There are few people working in this field and there’s been little to interest me among those who have released material.
Subjective is the first album to come near the ground breaking work of Brian Eno that I’ve heard in a long time.
