Experimental pop explosion from ex-Moloko vocalist
Space jazz in an electric lounge. This is experimental pop music that rearranges and contorts the common usage of instruments and production equipment to create something original sounding whilst at the same time quite clearly having it's roots cemented in the trends of old. There's a lot of cool jazz insertions and strange cut-up intersections of great unusual sound that just latch onto your ears and don't let go. The music utilises noises more common to everyday life than music and makes them into the most euphonious sounds, in the same trend as Blur's brilliantly crafted 'Gene by Gene.'
Róisín Murphy, who formerly sang with the dance-groove outfit Moloko, has teamed up with Matthew Herbert who acts as collaborator and producer on this seminal, awkward yet rewarding take on the stagnant idea of 'an album.' The tracks are deadly memorable, from 'Leaving The City' with it's stop and start syncopation madness to the beautiful and fluid 'The Closing of the Doors', this album travels through all types of genre and style and maintains a very strong sense of what it is.
It goes from sounding like Jamiroquai’s cool dancey funk to Stereolab's swish jazzy experimentalism, 'Sinking Feeling' begins with a classic brass motif that catches your attention straight away, then melds and moulds into a barrage of crazy pop sound with a vocal line over the top that ties it all down and brings a sense of order and cohesion to the song. 'Through Time' is quite possibly the ultimate song on the LP, with a rustic jazz feel like you were in some cool smoky-blue club in the 20s, it's a true beauty, truly masterful song-writing. 'If We're In Love' hits you with some big bass and some nice n cool brass tones reminiscent of some groovy Outkast tune.
'Ramalama [Bang Bang]' is banging with melodic drums leading the way as if they were being hit to lead a tribal dance. There are a lot of worldly influences in the music, it really is an amalgamation of all styles that creates a kind of fusion music that's subtle and outrageous at the same time and really succeeds where countless others have failed.
The title track 'Ruby Blue' is big and spacious, whacking you with heaviness as it starts then going into off-the-wall melodic ambient ambiguity for the rest of the restless running time, superb. 'Off On It' starts with a few clashing guitar notes which sound suitable for Nine Inch Nails' 'The Fragile' and then transcends into soft swirls of vocal lushness and swelling electronic lounge-noise.
'The Closing of the Doors' closes off the album in a lovely, sensuous manner leaving you ready for bed and sinking sleep. This is a record that merges all types of sound together to actually create a spectacle worthy of praise. A true success in melding sound, an area so overpopulated with failures, quite an achievement, Róisín Murphy is a match for Björk.