The Beat Surrender

I’m not a massive fan of Latin music on the whole, I’m also not a very big fan of jazz either, so put the two together and really it should be a musical disaster waiting to happen on my stereo. This theory was disproved in some style a few weeks back when the latest single from RSL landed on my doormat and being in one of those easy come easy go moods I sometimes find myself in, I gave it a play.

The track was called The Magic Of Spain and it had so much zest and funky Latin rhythms running throughout it, that even I couldn’t resist it’s charms. After reviewing that I was then offered the full length debut album as well, I have to be honest I wasn’t convinced that this type of music could sustain my interest for that long, I also had a sense of dread when I put the disc in my stereo and the system informed me that this album was sixty five and a half minutes long.

I needn’t have worried though, since that first time I played it, Every Preston Guild has been on my stereo five or six times since I got it, now I realise that doesn’t sound a lot, but for the amount of music I buy and get sent that’s a hell of a lot in a few weeks. This album has been five years in the making from the group forming to releasing it and you can tell. Every note is perfect; every one of them serves a purpose on the respective track, it also doesn’t sound dated in any way and the beauty of it is that in twenty years time I still can’t see it sounding dated.

The album opens with a slow building two minutes, then a dramatic cinematic style crash (a lot of the tracks could easily be excellent soundtrack material) and then it’s straight into a hot salsa rhythm. The Mast (Love Will Be Strong) is the second track and a former single, this features some lovely beats and a funky female vocal, but it really feels like carnival time on this track when the flamenco breakdown comes in and steals the show.

And on we go with quality track after quality track, even the Plunge Interlude is a moody, creepy instrumental, Star is a head nodding, feet tapper featuring some lovely guitar and flute work before the beat comes in. We get more soulful vocals on the superb Inside Looking Out, its six minutes long like a lot of tracks on this album, but the best thing is that not one of them feels over long.

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