The problem with it for me as a "genre hopping" album was that it kept falling between stools. The album starts off with a couple of near misses: the Morcheeba-like 'Under The Sun' and 'Muse Breaks' which has a promising Miles like trumpet introduction, but then 'breaks' with d'n'b, daft lyrics and a uninteresting rap. 'Your Country' is going to be the single and it might do well as I concede it's a bit of a grower for fans of the sythn-vocoder and a bouncy beat; as they say, "I think you can have all the greatest technology around you in all the world, but at the end of the day, it's the human being that makes the music". I'd suggest any remix action deletes this (please).

So for me, the ones to look for are the Break Reformesque 'Worth Light' with an acoustic guitar riff and the gentle female vocals of Noa, the electro-downtempo, 'When Silent It Speaks' and the electro-chill out 'Room For Me, Room For Sweets'. Daft title but stick with it for the slight raise in tempo at the end.

'Two Steps Away' goes for a Bugz approach with the acoustic guitar solo, which is unusual and it ends with a 'live' piano-jazz session. Meanwhile, 'Meantime' is the longest track picking up on some more brokenness, rhodes funk and spaceness only to be spoilt by the sythn-vocoder. An instrument version of this could have been the single with the next track, 'Sunswoop' on the reverse. 'Sunswoop' is the one, Jazz-house space-synth. Admittedly there's still the vocoder stuff going on but by then you're resigned to it and the funkin' bass makes up for it. Stanley Clark/George Duke would have been proud of this one in their more obvious attempts at a euro-disco-funk crossover all those years ago.

J.Viewz is Jonathan Dagan's brainchild and a number of the tracks feature him on guitar, such as 'Feeler'. He's been working on this project since 2002 and he's found some excellent musicians to work with. I think we'll find some of these tracks will be included on this summer's compilation albums as there's probably something here for everyone. So don't forget, there's a hidden track in 'Protected' called, '5:56' which shows off Mr. Dagan's chillout-downtempo roots and it's as good a time to reflect as any. But before we hit the beach and turn off our minds, hit 'Sunswoop' again. It's changed my mind about this CD. It could be a big tune.

Reviewed: CD Cat.No. DPLAY CD 5 Label: Deeplay Released 30th May 2005.

J.Viewz are: Jonathan Dagan - Guitars, vocals, turntables & laptop, Noa Lembersky - vocals, David Adda - Piano & keyboards, Uriah Gazit - Trumpet, guitars & vocals

Link:
The Violet Core