Album Review: 5 A Day

Nathan Haines’ name is on the album but if you have enjoyed previous Nathan Haines recordings you may feel you’ve been given the wrong album! 5 A Day has a striking new contemporary R&B style, where the B stands for beats, not blues, although behind the modern groove lies a smooth blues and funk feel. It’s not a pre-dinner album, it’s better for an after dinner groove, the kind of hip hop music you expect to hear booming out of someone’s car. Nathan’s saxophone’s are not dominant and generally appear halfway into the songs, some are a bit back in the mix with lots of reverb so they are a bit wet and not an assertive influence to the music (unlike in his earlier recordings). There is nothing actually wrong with that, it’s just a surprise when you’re expecting more of the wonderful jazz sax music that one of New Zealand’s best saxophonist’s has done in the past, of which I personally can’t get enough of.

The tracks generally have a straightforward repeated riff that drives the beat of the songs, some have the beat emphasised by soulful vocal chants, where any second you expect an extravagant gangster type rap to burst forth. An exception to this is the brilliant Wait n See which has what you could call a traditional vocal, from Tama Waipara, a very smooth Pacific Sinatra sounding vocal, with sweet soprano accompaniment. The beats are varied and interesting, there’s the techno oriental style of Hidden Fortress laden with stylish synth and distant pipes, and a cool vocal by Kevin Mark Trial. There is a dynamic 80’s beat in Zoot Allure with swirling keyboards and flirting soprano sax, Got Me Thinking has a super bass and drum beat that’s hard not to clap along to, but Nathan’s sax makes a much too short appearance. Mastermind appears to have the best blend of styles, starting with a groovy bass and drum sound that instantly converts to a cool funky jazz sound when Nathan’s sax joins the fray.

The cool and groovy sound has been achieved with most of the inspiration and the backing beats supplied from friends Marc Mac (UK), and P-Money (NZ). But the highlights are clearly when you hear Nathan playing his saxophone’s, which as mentioned appears to be not as prevalent as you would like, it’s still very enjoyable and the music is fresh, modern and vibrant. It’s said that Nathan wanted to create an album representing his life in both the UK and New Zealand, which I can say he has achieved amazingly well, it’s also a blending of music that is surprising, with Nathan bringing woodwind back to modern R&B, a world now dominated by bass and synth, saxophone became a long forgotten instrument, to the point where it was thought it wouldn’t work in today’s layered electro synth laced dance beats, but thankfully Nathan has done an inspired job merging them as one, long live the saxophone.