Multi instrumentalist Shawn Lee is a very busy boffin, having released seven studio albums in the past seven years as well as working as a touring musician for aritists such as Coldcut, LeAnn Rimes, UNKLE, The Dust Brothers, St Etienne, Jeff Buckley and even the Spice Girls. On top of all that he has contributed incidental music to TV shows such as Malcolm in The Middle and Desperate Housewives. His latest album (the fourth for Ubiquity), entitled “Voices & Choices”, is by far his strongest and most fully realised release to date.
Taking its cues from the much sampled and desired Sound Library albums created by British studio musos for use in various films and TV shows and adverts, all with varying themes – suspense, drama, romance, horror – as well as paying obvious homage to some of the great studio composers of the ’60s and ’70s, Voices & Choices is a cool as you like, funky trip into another age. Lee resurrects the sounds of Ennio Morricone on the tune ‘JW’, perhaps referrencing spaghetti western flick The Outlaw Jose Wales. Elsewhere on the album the sounds of David Axelrod – most evident on the track ‘Song For David’ (go figure) with the signature walking bassline and open drum sound of the cantankerous swinger’s studio setup – ring out with a thrilling repose. Le Planete Savauge composer Alain Gourager, French legend Serge Gainsbourg and others of their ilk also get tributes on tracks whose titles are an indication of the grooves that lie within. ‘Mondo Mondo’, ‘Glass Act’, ‘Jawbreaker’ and ‘Francoise Hardy’ all take the listener back into a sharp suited world of mystery, spys, kinky happenings and espionage.
Vocalist Nino Moschella and MC Ohmega Watts make appearances on one track each, the former having collaborated with Lee on a previous EP, while lyricist Watts gives ‘The Glass Hour Effect’s a hip hop twist, which acts as a nice counterpoint to the retro rhythms covering this album. As a concept (to create a library style album that works as a whole listening experience), Lee has been completely successful and this is the perfect accompaniment to the classics of the particular musical age that Mr Lee and his Ping Pong Orchestra obviously adore.
Lyndon Pike
