After three Top 10
singles, a gold-selling debut album and universal acclaim
for being the producer who brought Seal back in from the cold,
Jakatta (aka Dave Lee) has returned with a track certain to
sweeten the soul and bolster the spirit. 'One Fine Day' arrives
on February 17th through Rulin.
The confidence for this 'boast' stems
from one prime fact, Lee's choice of vocalist is a 'Le Chanteuse
extraordinaire' and a woman who already holds a sacred spot
in all our lyrical memories - Beth Hirsch was the voice
of Air's seminal track 'All I Need'. When a musician employs
their voice with as much dexterity and range as a concert
pianist dancing over the keys in mid-performance everybody
takes notice of the talent, a point not lost on Dave Lee:
"I'm not keen on the idea of collaboration
for collaboration sake," offers Lee, "but I always
aspire to producing interesting sounds using the best musicians
around and Beth's voice is one of the most expressive instruments
I've come across."
It's a game of simple odds and when you set Hirsch's sensual
tones against a backdrop designed and coloured by the 52-piece
National Philharmonic Orchestra and their conductor Nick
Ingman, you have, quite simply, a musical epiphany waiting
to happen. The orchestral element contributes the kind of
ornate, textured soundscape that Hirsch literally roams
in - where she roams is kept under the watchful eye of a
man who has become a sanctuary for taste over the years.
Everywhere you look Dave Lee's prodigious
output is recognizable through its excellence. His recent
critically and commercially acclaimed gold selling debut
album 'Visions' is a successful departure from the disco/jazz-funk
tracks that have kept funkateers everywhere happy for years.
In every respect, Lee manages to straddle the commercial/underground
divide with real aplomb and is always keen to strive for
the various in his work.
It was this instinct which led him
to make a song that the lazy will define as "chill
out". For Dave this definition is not really good enough,
"a lot of chill-out I find bland. It's stuff you have
in the background. It's not meant to be listened to properly
and I'm not into making music that's not meant to be to
listened to properly." Listen then, if you have ears.
