Euphoria
Euphoria (1999)

review by: Michael Walls
Date: 10/3/00

In the tradition of Deep Forest or Enigma, Euphoria's self-titled CD (I believe it is a debut CD) is a collection of ambient grooves, peppered with dreamy female vocals and bass-heavy samples.

I do enjoy this style of music, so when I originally heard the first track called "Delirium" I knew I would enjoy the entire album. This is one of those CDs where if you're not paying attention, you won't notice when one song ends and the next one begins. That's not to say all the songs sound alike. In fact, there is a good variety of sounds here. There are some smooth jazzy rhythms, such as on "Sleep" which reminds me of a sexy Sade tune. Then there are dark bluesy beats, such as on "Notting Hill Gate" a short song with a great Dobro guitar sound. Then it flows into "Lost on a River" featuring a steel guitar rhythm with a great waa-waa sound. The CD ends with "The Road", a production that starts with some bluegrass guitar picking and kicks into a multi-layered instrumental featuring the bass guitar of Geddy Lee and gospel sounding chants and female vocals, fading out into Irish bagpipes. Love it.

It's a well produced CD and l look forward to more from this group. Trust me, if you are familiar with Deep Forest or Enigma, then imagine them with more defined instrumentation, deeper grooves and seductive vocals and you have Euphoria.