Album Review: Zomby - With Love

With Love is the third outing by Brit electro/dub artist Zomby and it's a two-disc ride that ventures through the good and the bad, recalling points of his earlier work and other points referencing the work of others, which at times feels a little dated. 

Essentially, it's one big mix with all the tracks intertwining together and both discs not really feeling like separate entities. Disc One opens with As Darkness Falls, which in some ways acts as a sampler for the whole record, incorporating its many elements into one track. The disc then spirals through nothing really unique in comparison to what's already available in the genre until the closing track, 777, hits home, sounding like an Aphex Twin throwback.

Disc Two picks up things a bit with an added level of depth and atmosphere imbuing tracks such as White Smoke and Digital Smoke. Pyrex Nights, featuring the record's only collaborator Last Japan, feels like the record's only self-contained outing and is without a doubt the most engaging moment. Reflections In Black Glass is also a decent stab at a traditional instrumental, breaking up the action with an oriental flavour about it in amongst a textural synth, before Shiva then brings proceedings back to relative mediocrity and momentarily makes you think you accidentally ventured back to Disc One. 

With Love feels a little pompous being spread over two discs, and the fact that neither disc achieves any notable heights rams home this perception. It's not that it is a bad attempt at the genre, but considering some of the artists around today and ones that have been gone before – it's all just a little boring.