By Stone Bayliss
Right away, this tune gets an A+ on production quality and arrangement. Huge
sound on this, with great changes and an awesome
east-meets-west
pop
fusion.
Liquid Blue is a
high energy pop outfit with a big sound and a clear,
positive message. Just imagine if
Amy Grant and
Ravi Shankar had a love child. Now, try to imagine they had
seven of them: three vocalist/dancers, a guitarist, a drummer, a
DJ and bass player, and a lead vocalist and keyboardist and sent
them off to tour
Asia (and if you know anything of Ravi, it's not *entirely* out
of the question ... love ya', Rav).
Liquid Blue is a world-pop fusion group based out of
San Diego, California, with performance credits spanning the
globe (count them ... 60 countries), including a televised concert in
China to an audience of 65,000 or so. Any band that has its own
dancers (especially the BlueGirlsｩ dancers) probably deserves its
own stadium.
"Making Up" is a positive pop tune that squarely addresses world
conflict and old wounds being healed by simply letting go of the
feuds and going forward from today. Okay, so I'm starting to sound a
little bit like Amy Grant myself, but after the third listen I swear
I was singing along. The introduction to this song is a very solid "sombati",
swimming in layers of
electronic and
percussive sounds; the opening hooks almost make you think
you're listening to
belly dancing music. The fusion takes a sudden turn down the
silk road to the
oriental, and then swerves off into the
western pop. Singer
Nikki Nova steps in and takes over, with awesome harmonies and
clean,
melodic lead vocals. Of course, a nod to both the keyboardist
and guitarist on this tune (Scott
Stephens and
Michael Vangerov, respectively). Great hooks and layers, all
throughout. The transitions, I have got to say, are smooth. Well
orchestrated and well performed. Kudos goes out to whomever is doing
the arrangements for these guys ... er ... folks.
Liquid Blue may be considered too 'bubblegum' for
some folks out there, but for anyone into the
optimistic world pop fusion genre they are definitely worth a
listen. In fact, this may be too super pop for some of those
strongly opposed to something this squeaky-clean to even make it
past the first listen. However, I would encourage my fellow haters
of sub mainstream pop to go ahead ... close your windows ... shut
your blinds ... check to make sure your roomies aren't home ... then
turn up the volume and just let yourself dance around the house to
"Making Up" for at least one hour in your underwear. Alright, so you
don't have to do it in your drawers ... but you know you want to.
Stone Bayliss
BandFreaks Staff Reviewer
