Zen Lemonade - Lemon Soul

[abasio]

 

Zen Lemonade

Lemon Soul

Dragonfly Records

2002

 

1 Super Panam Calling (2:43)

2 Juicy Science (8:16)

3 Dark Star (7:43)

4 Zodiac Guns (7:58)

5 Cloud 19 (6:30)

6 Brazil Mon Amour (8:13)

7 Pussy Galore (10:29)

8 Spinning Metal (9:50)

9 Midnight Basso Nova (8:02)

10 Motherland (3:31)

 

Zen Lemonade are Gus Till and Super Cozi. Both have released pretty good solo work but for me this album is the best stuff by either.

 

 

1 Super PanAm Calling

 

We start of with a twisted sample. It sounds like the old PanAm airline flight announcement but supersized for interstellar travel at light speed. Some funky metallic beats a hint of a melody but that's about it. It's an album intro, a cool one too.

 

2 Juicy Science

 

Nicely following from the intro is this cheeky number. It's got quite a driving monotonous beat and a cool baseline which twists and turns without actually changing much. The beats become more complex as the vocals drift by. Super Cozi has a wonderfully mysterious voice which they use to full effect. No singing but well timed well placed twisted snippets really do the trick. The main body of the track is kind of repetitive but all the subtle changes make this a really interesting piece of music. Juicy indeed.

 

3 Dark Star

 

A flawless jump to the next track, a slight break from the beat but it quickly comes back as if this is a continuation of Juicy Science. A very indistinguishable sample actually sounds like Cozi's vocals from the last track but muffled more. Just as driving but more acidic. The baseline is the sort that drills into the seratonin in your head. Around 5 minutes it begins to Klunk (in a Green Nun kind of way) before it changes direction but keeps going straight, if you know what I mean.

 

4 Zodiac Guns

 

Kicks in straight away with a strong 4/4 and nice metal souming beats lying underneath. Long slow synths float in and out and then become integral. They lead into a melody, it's made up of very twisted and distorted string sounds with more of a chime to them than seems possible. Anyway it's a pretty cool melody but it's sporadic, it doesn't continue seemlessly but comes and goes. Some more long slow synths, almost like waves, give this track a lot of atmosphere. It feels quite dark at times (not scary dark, cool dark) quite industrial.

 

5 Cloud 19

 

A seemingly dark scary voice (not actually scary, but when it was spoken you know it wanted to be, it's the sort of voice that makes my kids squeal with laughter). One of the most amazing baselines I've ever heard. Then SINGING. The singing's good though and it fits in well. It sounds like it could be Cozi again and it's distorted trippily in parts and echoed over bubbly sounds. It really is the baseline that makes this track though. It sounds like smoke city if smoke city was cooler.

 

6 Brazil Mon Amour

 

Another nice baseline starts this one with a very ringing (like a triangle) beat which gets over ridden by the 4/4 but is still very much in the background throughout but does get drowned out at times by other sounds. The baseline and background effects keep this one alive and while the baseline doesn't evolved at all, everything around it seems to be moving so randomly that it works having a monotonously steady spine. It disappears breifly without me really noticing but I really notice the absence as it comes back. Well Done, good track.

 

7 Pussy Galore

 

Is it about cats or something else? It's so cool. Really good synths drive this track faster than it's BPM. Loads of nice sounds in the background, bells, wierd stuff a muffled, techy vocal, plucked electric strings and now long slow synths under the really cool fast ones. The track changes direction a number of times but always stays on track. Always feel it is building to something. Amazing violin sounds come in briefly along with a host of other sounds which all really well arranged. It's busy but not too cluttered. Absolutely awesome tune, well worth it's 10:29

 

8 Spinning Metal

 

How much of your body is original? I love this tune. I love the samples. It samples a lot from the anime classic The Ghost in The Shell which was such a trippy movie to watch that hearing the samples in a trance track is awesome. All the sounds have the same atmosphere as the movie and it leads to a dark, mysterious, acid ridden track. Enjoyable lady sounds are quite prominent at times and a really twisted vocal sounds like chanting without chanting in a really techy sort of way. Another awesome track! I especially like Motoko's sample

 

9 Midnight Basso Nova

 

Well this is the track that MEOWS!! Very metallic again with a spacey atmosphere. A little cluttered at times but it all works together quite harmoniously. Sort of sounds like the Bossa Nova that is very popular in Japan (from Brazil?) but I haven't heard enough of that genre to be sure. It's quite cool track with some nice breakbeats that trip along nicely. It's a bit random but still seems more like organised chaos than just thrown together shit. Not the strongest track but allright. Cozi's voice at the end again is really cool, sexy almost.

 

10 Motherland

 

What the fuck!! First time I heard this I thought that I had skipped onto the next CD. A much different style to the rest of the album. It's hip hop. Slow hip hop but hip hop non the less. Raw simple beats and some guy rapping about the motherland. As hip hop goes it's obviously really good but it doesn't go at all with album and it would have been a lot better if this just wasn't on it.

 

 

So to sum up this album is really good. The 1st 6 tracks are good, 7 & 8 are absolutely mind blowingly good, 9 is okay and 10 just shouldn't be on this album. Pretty good going then. I would recommend getting this if you want something a little experimental but not too off the cuff.

 

Favourites 7(!) 8(!)

 

and a picture of Cozi & Gus for good measure

 

[Snapinho]

Sounds interesting, and Cozi looks interesting. Sexy picture.

[Kai-Q]

On 15.6.2006 at 2:53 PM, abasio said:

 

Zen Lemonade

Lemon Soul

Dragonfly Records

2002

 

1 Super Panam Calling (2:43)

2 Juicy Science (8:16)

3 Dark Star (7:43)

4 Cloud 19 (7:58)

5 Zodiac Guns (6:30)

6 Brazil Mon Amour (8:13)

7 Pussy Galore (10:29)

8 Spinning Metal (9:50)

9 Midnight Basso Nova (8:02)

10 Motherland (3:31)

 

Zen Lemonade are Gus Till and Super Cozi. Both have released pretty good solo work but for me this album is the best stuff by either.

 

 

1 Super PanAm Calling

 

We start of with a twisted sample. It sounds like the old PanAm airline flight announcement but supersized for interstellar travel at light speed. Some funky metallic beats a hint of a melody but that's about it. It's an album intro, a cool one too.

 

2 Juicy Science

 

Nicely following from the intro is this cheeky number. It's got quite a driving monotonous beat and a cool baseline which twists and turns without actually changing much. The beats become more complex as the vocals drift by. Super Cozi has a wonderfully mysterious voice which they use to full effect. No singing but well timed well placed twisted snippets really do the trick. The main body of the track is kind of repetitive but all the subtle changes make this a really interesting piece of music. Juicy indeed.

 

3 Dark Star

 

A flawless jump to the next track, a slight break from the beat but it quickly comes back as if this is a continuation of Juicy Science. A very indistinguishable sample actually sounds like Cozi's vocals from the last track but muffled more. Just as driving but more acidic. The baseline is the sort that drills into the seratonin in your head. Around 5 minutes it begins to Klunk (in a Green Nun kind of way) before it changes direction but keeps going straight, if you know what I mean.

 

4 Cloud 19

 

Kicks in straight away with a strong 4/4 and nice metal souming beats lying underneath. Long slow synths float in and out and then become integral. They lead into a melody, it's made up of very twisted and distorted string sounds with more of a chime to them than seems possible. Anyway it's a pretty cool melody but it's sporadic, it doesn't continue seemlessly but comes and goes. Some more long slow synths, almost like waves, give this track a lot of atmosphere. It feels quite dark at times (not scary dark, cool dark) quite industrial.

 

5 Zodiac Guns

 

A seemingly dark scary voice (not actually scary, but when it was spoken you know it wanted to be, it's the sort of voice that makes my kids squeal with laughter). One of the most amazing baselines I've ever heard. Then SINGING. The singing's good though and it fits in well. It sounds like it could be Cozi again and it's distorted trippily in parts and echoed over bubbly sounds. It really is the baseline that makes this track though. It sounds like smoke city if smoke city was cooler.

 

6 Brazil Mon Amour

 

Another nice baseline starts this one with a very ringing (like a triangle) beat which gets over ridden by the 4/4 but is still very much in the background throughout but does get drowned out at times by other sounds. The baseline and background effects keep this one alive and while the baseline doesn't evolved at all, everything around it seems to be moving so randomly that it works having a monotonously steady spine. It disappears breifly without me really noticing but I really notice the absence as it comes back. Well Done, good track.

 

7 Pussy Galore

 

Is it about cats or something else? It's so cool. Really good synths drive this track faster than it's BPM. Loads of nice sounds in the background, bells, wierd stuff a muffled, techy vocal, plucked electric strings and now long slow synths under the really cool fast ones. The track changes direction a number of times but always stays on track. Always feel it is building to something. Amazing violin sounds come in briefly along with a host of other sounds which all really well arranged. It's busy but not too cluttered. Absolutely awesome tune, well worth it's 10:29

 

8 Spinning Metal

 

How much of your body is original? I love this tune. I love the samples. It samples a lot from the anime classic The Ghost in The Shell which was such a trippy movie to watch that hearing the samples in a trance track is awesome. All the sounds have the same atmosphere as the movie and it leads to a dark, mysterious, acid ridden track. Enjoyable lady sounds are quite prominent at times and a really twisted vocal sounds like chanting without chanting in a really techy sort of way. Another awesome track! I especially like Motoko's sample

 

9 Midnight Basso Nova

 

Well this is the track that MEOWS!! Very metallic again with a spacey atmosphere. A little cluttered at times but it all works together quite harmoniously. Sort of sounds like the Bossa Nova that is very popular in Japan (from Brazil?) but I haven't heard enough of that genre to be sure. It's quite cool track with some nice breakbeats that trip along nicely. It's a bit random but still seems more like organised chaos than just thrown together shit. Not the strongest track but allright. Cozi's voice at the end again is really cool, sexy almost.

 

10 Motherland

 

What the fuck!! First time I heard this I thought that I had skipped onto the next CD. A much different style to the rest of the album. It's hip hop. Slow hip hop but hip hop non the less. Raw simple beats and some guy rapping about the motherland. As hip hop goes it's obviously really good but it doesn't go at all with album and it would have been a lot better if this just wasn't on it.

 

 

So to sum up this album is really good. The 1st 6 tracks are good, 7 & 8 are absolutely mind blowingly good, 9 is okay and 10 just shouldn't be on this album. Pretty good going then. I would recommend getting this if you want something a little experimental but not too off the cuff.

 

Favourites 7(!) 8(!)

 

and a picture of Cozi & Gus for good measure

 

In abasio's review, I corrected the song names from track 4 and 5. I noticed it first in YouTube where Gus Till left an comment, that Zodiac Guns is Cloud 19.
I talked a bit with Gus Till and he explaind me that Dragonfly Records mix up the tracklist.
So when you carefully listen to track 5 at 1:30 minutes, you can hear how Yukimi aka SuperCozi is saying "Zodiac Guns".
I add an picture from the back cover, where the tracklist has actually looking.