Sea Legs

Low Line Relay: Sea Legs Label: Audio Parallax

This is a really enjoyable, listenable electronica album from Low Line Relay (a.k.a. Leo O'Callaghan) . You can call it "beat-down", "slow house", "sci-fi disco", "space-jazz" - it's all good. Low Line uses richly layered synths to lay out the sci-fi vibe, taking you to some far-out places. But in some ways, I tended to prefer the more stripped-down, less-is-more approach on the soulful tracks. My picks are: #1 ("Below the Surface"), #5 ("The Bass Player"), #8 ("Ties up in Knots"), and #10 ("Silver Screen").

01. "Below The Surface" - Like two tracks in one. Starts soulful & gritty, "beatdown house" with sexy vocals, then goes into a space-y funky vibe with snappy drums.
02. "Pushed To The Limit" - Sci-fi jazz over crackly textures and chillout grooves - a psychedelic guitar improv is featured prominently.
03. "Spiral" - Multi-layered synth-heavy track with a sort of 80s space-y disco vibe
04. "Slave To The Grind" - Super-rich synth layers building up and taking you to far-out plac"es.
05. "The Bass Player" - Starts subtle and chilled out, introspective disco-soul, then gets a bit more dreamy as the synths build up. Love that vocal loop.
06. "Afterglow" - Synth-heavy sci-fi funk/disco that meanders and gets goofy at points
07. "Solid Sun" - Crackly, spacey, chill tempo, with occasional bursts of applause
08. "Ties Up In Knots" - A bit "less-is-more" approach - chilled-out synths, slower beat, an occasional female ooh-ahh-ing, breaking things down to soulful essentials
09. "Travelling Light" - Buzzy synth swirls, slow funky bass, female vocal "uh-huh"s. Simple but good.
10. "Silver Screen" - Blissful & airy. Bubbling chimes, a low bassy beat. Relaxed pianos.
11. "Altitude" - Loose and spacey interlude - some beats, loops, live crowd effect, and some spoken words
12. "Foresight" - A quickie little synth play
13. "Knackered Out" - Analog blurps and some static