Uninspiring deep house
The second studio effort by Gorgon City, comprising of North London producers Kyle Gibbon and Matt Robson-Scott, comes after 2014’s Sirens, which featured the UK hit “Ready For Your Love.” In Escape, Gorgon City continue to follow the previous artistic direction undertaken on Sirens, with average results that follow in spite of obvious talent between the two producers.
Most of this album’s lyrical content is thematically comprised of what it’s like to be youthful and the experiences of falling in love and doing things that’ll be regrettable the next morning. There can only be so many songs dealing with wanting to get closer to someone or being madly in love with the person you met at the club before it gets repetitive and, eventually, boring. These songs blend together and become less distinct from one song to the next as each track progresses. This album boils down to vapid pop-house music that isn’t substantial and won’t age well in the long run.
Production wise, most of the songs continue to recycle tropes that appear countless times in many other albums and EPs. Piano-backed tracks such as “Love Me” have been done countless times throughout the past few years, and the rise in popularity of house music makes this song a dime a dozen. While there are other tracks (from this year, even–namely Against All Logic’s “Cityfade”) that properly integrate piano into the rest of the song’s production, this track fails to properly build up from its backbone and naturally infuse a groove. This problem is prevalent throughout the entire album, unfortunately.
The best track on the album stands out from the rest in both production and lyrical content and carries the rest of the album because of it. “Hear That” sees deviation from the standard recipe for house hits, taking the distinctly East London vocals of D Double E and using that to contrast to the refined vocals of every other vocalist present on the album, giving a taste of grime that allows for both D Double E and Gorgon City to play off and maximize their talents. No nonsense bars from the grime rapper dealing with success and the search for it plus experimental beats from Gorgon City lead to a club-worthy song that belongs on the dance floor. The song is able to work so well because of how distinct it is and how much of a breath of fresh air it is when compared to the previous seven songs on the album.
This effort between the two is what the album should have sounded like at the end; “Hear That” is unique, different and actually fun when compared to the rest of the album, which is almost filler-like in comparison. If the London duo were to produce more grimy, darker tracks like “Hear That,” then they would be able to tap into an undervalued and oft-overlooked section of music that needs these dark, deep house/grime combos. Other than that, Escape is just another brick in the wall that is the current house music scene.
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