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I'm not sure how this review will be received by those of you who have been reading my writing for a while, but if you are one of my long-time admirers, you also know that I surprise myself sometimes with what I like (and what I don't). So, when I tell you that I enjoyed Life Is A Dance, even though it is, more or less, an overt new age music recording with half the songs containing explicit new age-type vocals, you might decide to stop reading right now. But, I hope not. Because what this album has that won me over is amazingly catchy hooks galore. Alaya can write some seriously slick, yet not vapid, music. Despite the in-your-face feel-good quasi-spiritual lyrics, the songs on this CD are super radio-friendly. In fact, the musical (not lyrical) "feel" of this album is somewhat close to Gary Wright's Dream Weaver of many years ago. Except that Alaya's music is much less sugary (especially the instrumental cuts, which really rock at times) and his voice is not the Wayne Newton-on-Quaaludes that I considered Wright's to be on the aforementioned album. Obviously, being more of an instrumental music reviewer on this here website, I enjoyed the instrumental tracks more. "Dance of the Wind" marries bubbling dance beats with spacy synths and a warm liquid synth line. "Space Stream" begins with lots of synth arpeggios, followed by a whistling tone and underlying washes of cloud-like keyboards. It eventually morphs into a nice bit of classic new age-style EM, with sensuous rhythms and wave upon wave of synthesizers. "Gate of the Time" begins ambient-like but soon heads for more of a Richard Bone/cyber-retro jazzy EM vein. While it's not in the same league as the masterful Mr. Bone's work, I've heard plenty worse. In particular, the electronic rhythms are, well, just finger-poppin' good. Later in the song, some more ambient textures (reminding me of Cursor Club artist Crown Invisible, of all things!) emerge and mix with the more spacy/rhythmic stuff. Let me interject that the production values on this unassuming-looking album are quite high. The mix is solid and the placement of rhythms, melody line keyboards, and even vocals is ideal for headphone listening. Thankfully, there is just a smidgen of left-to-right panning (which I don't usually care for - didn't that go out with "Whole Lotta Love?"). Also, Alaya's instrumentation sounds first rate as well. No cheesy keyboards or inferior drum machines here that I could tell. Of the vocal numbers, there isn't one that makes me actually cringe. And one or two I truly like. "Rays of the Heart" (the album opener) and the beat-driven title cut are undeniably toe-tappin' (hell, I'm shakin' my butt here in my chair as I write this review), so the guy is doing something right. Alaya sings in a dramatic style and only sometimes succumbs to a bit of a wail or over the top histrionics. However, what won me over on the vocal cuts I enjoyed were his obvious good intentions, his genuine warmth, and those damn hooks of his. However, (and I'm going to be haunted by this until I figure it out) I'll be damned if his voice is not a dead-ringer for someone who is a real famous rock singer. But I just can't lay my finger on who the hell I hear of echoes of in Alaya's voice. Okay, so I probably can't convince many hard core instrumental EM fans or even instrumental new age music buffs to give this one a try no matter what I write. And cynics may roll their eyes at the CD's optimistic life-affirming lyrics. Personally, I was very apprehensive about what my reaction would be to Life Is A Dance when I got it in the mail. I was almost afraid to play the damn thing. But imagine my surprise when I played it twice in a row! So, color me amazed. I know I'm no new ager, but I still know a good beat and solid hook when I hear it. And I hears it here - a lot! |
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