Heights of Abraham

After a ten-year sabbatical, three-piece UK trip-hop pioneers Heights of Abraham have returned. With an updated approach to their production techniques facilitated by a vast improvement in the tools available compared to the early ’90s, Sim Lister and Steve Cobby (one half of Fila Brazilia) lay down some sensual chill-out instrumentals for Jake Harries’ haunting vocals to float above. Indeed, Harries didn’t see the producers during the entire project as it was sent back and forth between computers. Harries’ soothing voice is hypnotic and it’s easy to ignore the words as he takes the vocal melody beyond lyricism. Although the song structures are fairly rudimentary, there is sufficient variation in sound and style traversing everything between the Mezzanine bass lines and breaks of "Open Source” and the soulful psychedelic synths of "Intruder,” with each track dissipating tension like a massage for the mind.