Cassius, Ibifornia – (Love Supreme Sarl, 2016)
Ibifornia welcomes you to a tropical island with its combination of house-electro beats and exotic bird sound excerpts. On this island, you will find an mixture of collaborations, from Pharrell Williams to Mike D of the Beastie boys to One Republic’s frontman Ryan Tedder. The first few songs are solid dance tunes, perfect for a beach rave. Cassius’ track “Go Up” featuring Pharrell Williams is just like any song Pharrell touches—magical. It has a smooth guitar tune combined with house rhythms and Cassius’ signature ‘90s electro sounds. Suddenly, the next track, “Feel Like Me,” features a sad and slow house beat with Cat Power’s soulful voice over it. It’s not exactly the song you want to hear at a beach rave, but it’s a beautiful song in itself. A few tracks later you have “Dive In” which is a mixture of soft alternative guitar and electro. It begins with acoustic guitar and suddenly emerges as a deep house techno party with only electro sounds and few lyrics. While the album has some gems, the album as an entire piece does not exactly flow or mesh from start to end.
Trial Track: “Go Up”
6.5/10
