Album review: L-Vis 1990, Neon Dreams

In advance of receiving this, I wasn’t actually aware it was due to be released, so was pretty excited to find the message in my inbox.

Past experience of L-Vis 1990 was of him lighting up a new years rave a few years back with his fairly distinct style of house. My expectations were for an evolution of that sound…

After hitting play for the first time, it’s immediately relaxing with a nice rolling energy. It’s a vibe and I like it.

As it progresses, the sounds develop healthily into the kind of deep dark disco that really does sound like it’s from another era whilst still sounding fresh and big, some of the synths are massive!

One of the main things that hit me whilst listening is how you can got lost in the music, zoning out and pretty much mentally drifting to another place. This isn’t a collection of songs put together for the sake of a release; it feels like an album, it feels right, it flows perfectly throughout. There’s no need or urge to skip a track, it really is cover to cover listening.

A few of the tracks give a Chromeo-esque production vibe; by no means a bad thing, but it’s distinctly darker. The quality of the production of the entire album is generally pretty fantastic throughout.

One thing I would have liked to see somewhere is an out and out banger or two. Despite literally every track on the album being good, with a vibe; and even L-Vis making the conscious decision to “distance himself from the functional requisites of club music” it would have been cool for a little something that just hit you in the face, although it probably wouldn’t fit with the overall sound and feel of the album.

Standout favorites in the album are; ‘I Feel It’, ‘Lost In Love’, and ‘The Beach’. ‘Lost In Love’ strikes as the track on the album with the most commercial appeal should they actually be thinking about it.

All in all, it’s good all over, and knowing the self-imposed restrictions put on the project by L-Vis just makes it more interesting. As soon as it ended I hit play again; that says enough.

Skiddle rating: 3.5/5

Reviewed by: Tony Bennett

Release date: 26th September 2011

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