Flipside: Presence - CD review from The Blurb

Chill out compilations add flavour to anyone’s music collection. Ministry of sound put out a reasonable one every year, but my favourite chill out sound comes when listening to Café Del Mar anthologies - of which there are many. Listening to these timeless albums never fails to transport me to a place of relaxed being. Imagining myself to be seated at the beach fronted Spanish island resort sipping margaritas and pondering my esoteric being with someone close is not a far cry from the bustling and packed bus trip home. Daydreams aside, these masterful albums give an ambient escape route from my daily grind. It is fair to say I benchmark chill out music against the emotional response Café Del Mar elicits in me.

Together since 2002, Danish producer, Klaus Bau (formerly of Bliss) joined forces with Swedish composer and musician Sebastian Lilja - Flipside was borne.

They’re probably little known to you and I, but in Europe they have toured Denmark’s Roskilde Festival, featured on the bill of The ‘Absolut Vodka’ tour and done Ibiza with Roger Sanchez and Pete Gooding. Surely then this must indicate a following for their soundscapes and qualify them to make decent chill out tracks?

Ummm…no, not if their latest offering Presence is anything to go by. Rather than transporting me to a better place, their sound was a homogenous outpouring of musical instrumentation. The tracks with vocals did nothing but make me want to switch them off, one track Take me back did build with intensity but it was lost amidst the same - same unimaginative instrumental combining that my ears heard.

Whilst I was inclined to doze off whilst evaluating this album I don’t think that is the intention for Flipside’s Presence this album for me lacks any musical synergy. In fact with a title like Presence, you’d think they’d want their audience to remain present throughout it.