Album Review: Paradise

Psychedelicatessen: a word used by the Squares to describe a head shop. Also, a word that aptly describes Voe’s latest release, Paradise.

Like a box of Cadbury Favourites, Paradise is a pick n’ mix of different genres performed in what has proven to be Voe’s signature style. Like the Khate EP, which I reviewed earlier this year, the vocals are mellow and reverbed into space, the drums are subdued and the guitar is layered enough to save the album from being just another boy with a guitar in a bedroom album. The experimentation going on is on the level of a band jamming, but not on the polyrhythmic jazz level, so the songs hold together as an organic continuation of themselves.

Something has happened since the release of Khate. Whether it’s a change within myself, or a subtle improvement in Voe’s production skills, something has made Paradise sound like a real band, as opposed to a one man effort, and a band that’s stepped straight out of the early 70s at that. It’s an aesthetic distant from what the mainstream are coming out with today, and obviously speaks of Voe’s influences.

Unfortunately, just as Voe are reaching their peak for me, they have announced they are focusing their artistic endeavours elsewhere, and this is the last release for the relatively prolific underground artist under the Voe masthead, at least for now. Hopefully, we’ll see more of Voe in the new year, and I wager we will. An artist needs their outlet.