Various Artists – Chillout (CD)

This came out in 2003 on Guidance records. An international compilation (10 tracks = 49.55 minutes) with the following bands / artists: Projections (Los Angeles, USA), Toka Project (Nottingham, UK), Caia (Japan), Bent (UK), The Dining Rooms (Milano, Italy), Butti49 (Norway), and Flunk (Norway). It reads on the back cover of this CD `sit back and enjoy and evening of modern lounging with this laid-back collection of chilled-out grooves `, yeah right, I`m thinking. I bought this out of sheer curiosity (and the fact that it cost me 2.00 $ at Renaissance Montréal helps). I`m a sucker for cheap publicity. I was expecting commercial crap, maybe one or two good tracks. I was wrong here. Yes your honor, I confess. I`m surprised. In fact this one`s a good surprise. You will hear different music styles: lounge mixed with cool jazz vibes (luminate part 2, be free), lounge with funk + trip hop elements thrown in (whose blues), downtempo + lounge + electronica (strictly bongo), chillout funk & lounge (you, sei tu), spacy retro futuristic lounge (afterwards @ the bar), lounge with a Latin American feel (samba olympo), and dreamy chill out lounge Sunday people). It`s minus 20 outside. I`m sitting home enjoying a warm coffee, sitting on my favorite chair, having a sip while relaxing, chilling out. Untrue. I`m chilling in, inside relaxing, enjoying life`s simple pleasures. Warm music for cold days. It feels good finding some spare time, escaping modern life`s numerous stressful situation and relax.