Customer Reviews

Hed Kandi: Winter Chill 06.03

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'm not really all that familiar with the Hed Kandi series except for their previous chillout album and now "Hed Kandi: Winter Chill 06.03". I am more of a Buddha Bar fan when it comes to this type of music. I decided to get the new chillout cd in the label's Winter Chill series because I liked what I heard on a previous Winter Chill cd. I'm glad I got it. I found "Winter Chill 06.03" pure ecstasy. I persoanlly enjoy the angelic female vocals that I hear on a lot of chillout music. What I really appreciate about Hed Kandi's chillout series is that the song selections are far from predictable like on a lot of chillout compilations you see in record stores. It is hard for me to pick a favorite of the two discs because the music on both cds are exquisite and a completely joy to listen to. On disc 1, I particularly enjoyed the sensuous sounds of Slovo's "Killing Me" and Hubtone/Zoe Johnston's "Red Balloon". Zoe has a beautiful voice that is ideal for this type of music. Glad to hear her beautiful voice again. On disc 2, I loved the folksy/trip hop sound of Kate Rogers' "This Collective" and the haunting melodies and husky female vocals on Husky Rescue's "New Light of Tomorrow". All of the songs on both cds are excellent. They are the perfect soundtrack to a romantic dinner or the ideal music to chill too after a long day at the office.

I'm a big fan of the WINTER CHILL series from Hed Kandi. It has yet to disapoint me. The songs on here are very acoustic, with hints of trip hop and electronica dripped in throughout. It would be hard for me to find a song I dislike on here, they are all wonderful. It's a nice CD to pop in at the end of a long day, to just relax, and get lost in the beautiful music and great melodies. The vocals from the various artists makes it an interesting, soothing listen. Some favorites include Therese "Why", Lamb "Hearts and Flowers", Headway "Remind Me To Miss You", Bliss "Breathe", Goldfrapp "Forever", Slovo "Killing Me", I am Kloot "The Same Deep Water as Me", Mooi "Sway" and Elbow "Ribcage" to name just a few. Not a dud in the whole collection.

I don't know what happened to this series. They started off one way and ended up another. This cd is nice don't get me wrong but there is very little diversity ! All these songs are accoustic with bare drums or just plain boring. What happened to the Winterchill 2 sound? When the series began they use to show a diverse blend of electronic's and hiphop/TripHop sounding tracks. Now everything souunds like it almost come off the same album or band. The 1st 5 songs on this Cd are beautiful ! Especially the "Slovo" song ! But after that it all starts to run together and sound like one long theme song. I think "Breathe" close to the end of disc one picks up a bit ! But disc 2 I heard barely anything that caught my attention. "Sway & Beautiful" are very catchy and strong songs. But anyway overall compared to the 1st 2 Winterchill efforts the last couple have shown no diversity. I think this will be my last purchase.

I really enjoy this latest entry in the Winter Chill series from Hed Kandi. Very nice chill album, very lowkey. It is heavy on the female vocals, but I find them to be very ethereal and calming, and for me it's a nice experience when I pop in the CD. Hed Kandi is good because they choose different artists and songs that aren't on other compilations, and they've chosen some excellent ones for this disc.

Highlights on disc one include Slovo's "Killing Me" which is probably my favorite. Mooi "Sway", Kaskade "Let You Go", Goldfrapp's "Forever" and Hubtone feat Zoe Johnston's "Red Balloon" are all highlights on the first disc. Disc two highlights include Headway's "Remind Me To Miss You", Lamb's "Hearts and Flowers", Therese's "Why", Kate Rogers' "This Collective" and Husky Rescue's "New Light of Tomorrow".

All the songs are wonderful and the perfect soundtrack for a nice quiet evening at home.

Unfortunately Amazon does not let you rate with half stars for the true rating of this CD for me is 2 1/2 STARS. In the liner notes to the previous Winter Chill [2002], Mark Doyle the compiler and self-proclaimed "Hed of Kandi" said that CD was heavy on the female vocals. In this installment he failed to mention that it is overwhelmingly female vocals. The problem is that the female singers all have the same limited vocal range and sing in hushed breathless tones accompanied by minimal and bland instrumentation. I don't know if this is the current state of chill music or just poor choices by Mark Doyle. If you don't watch your CD player, you will not know when one track ends and another begins for most of the first CD. One exception is the always interesting GOLDFRAPP who contribute "Forever". Towards the end of the first CD, the music changes, gets more interesting and signals the superior second CD. Songs by Adani & Wolf "Onto the Light" and Pepe Deluxe "Lying Peacefully" are examples.
At the risk of being labelled a chauvinist, the second CD is better and the saving grace of this collection, because it features more male vocalists and the songs are more distinguishable. Highlights are "The Same Deep Water as Me" by I AM KLOOT, "For All Times" by ABRAHAM, and "Falling" by Nitin Sawhney.
When I wrote a review of the 2002 installment of Winter Chill, I wrote that Winter CHill 2 was the collection to buy. It has the dark, intersting chill sound that was the trademark sound of this series. The current collection has more of a dark sound than last year's offering but it fails to satisfy. In the end, I put Winter Chill 2 back on my CD player.

The previous Winter Chill compilation (06.02), labelled as "The Darker Side of Chill", had a good mix of interesting, offbeat chillout music. Unfortunately, this new one aims to be much more middle-of-the-road. Many of the tracks, most of which feature female vocalists, seem to have been chosen for their generic, cloying blandness. It's not bad if you like your music on the pretty side, and there's some good material here, but Winter Chill 06.02 was more adventurous.