Maya Jane Coles releases massive 24 track LP, her first in three years
Hailing from the UK, London based DJ Maya Jane Coles released her second full length studio album, Take Flight, on July 11, 2017. Although she has worked on and produced a number remixes and EPs, Take Flight is her first studio album in three years.
The project itself is quite lengthy sitting at twenty-four tracks and a run time of nearly two hours. While the album is quite enjoyable for the most part, the majority of the songs carry the same down-tempo feel to them. This combined with the sheer length of the project makes sitting through the entirety of the album kind of exhausting as the songs seem to blend together.
The album largely consists of slow house, down-tempo, and trip-hop genres and is overall a chill, laid back album. The vocals are done mostly by Maya Jane Coles herself, but the album does have a few featured artist such as Wendy Rae Fowler and GAPS. The album was released as a two disc set, and the overall layout seems to alternate between the trip-hop, house and down-tempo feel.
The track “Old Jam,” the third song on the first disc, is a smooth trip-hop track and the first true taste of what the album has to offer in regards to its trip-hop influenced tracks. The song has lyrical vocals and has slick instrumental loops playing over a rhythmic drum loop. The song does feature some kind of vocal sample in the background, but is rather difficult to discern what is being said.
The song is followed up by “Take Flight” which has a rhythmic down-tempo feel to it. The vocals on this track are absolutely stellar and truly stand out among some of the other vocal arrangements on the album. Maya Jane Coles’ vocals on the song lend an atmospheric quality that goes nicely with the chill down-tempo vibe that is present on the rest of the track. The instrumentation on the track utilizes a light melodic synth loop and the drum pattern has kicks and hats that are on the lighter side and those are combined with a sharp snare that stands out on the track.
Another highlight of the album comes on the first song of the second disc called “Won’t Let You Down.” This song has a slowed house feel to it and maintains the overall laid back sound that is present on the rest of the album. The song also has the same airy vocals, done by Maya Jane Coles, that some of the other songs feature as well. The song feels like one big loop with slight variations within it which allows the listener to be lulled into the ethereal feel of the track.
The track “Go On and Make It Through” has a similar qualities of house present on it as well. While it is not as airy as “Won’t Let You Down,” the piano loop and sharp snare still give it that lulling feel to it. The song is entirely instrumental which works well for this track since it allows for the instrumentation to stand out even more. The song is also slightly more rhythmic than some of the other tracks on the album however its not so fast that it feels out of place.
While this album has a lot to offer and is not bad in any sense, the sheer length and somewhat repetitiveness of the album make it a little difficult to get through. It’s good but exhausting; the fact that the album was released as a two disc set shows that it could have been released in two parts. Considering that Maya Jane Coles had not released an album in three years makes one wonder why she did not elect to release the album in different part and instead elected to sit on the content and release it all at once.
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