(Jive/Zomba)

No this aint no second rate gambling city in Nevada. Instead Reno come to you as the next hybrid act combining dance music programming and samples with live instruments in a more pop song structure. The little sticker on the front cover with magazine quotes makes reference to their Jive label mates Groove Armada and in a way this is an easy comparison to make with some obvious similarities in style. It would, however, be limiting to define them by this alone.

Reno are Liverpool duo Andy Holt and Phil Burns who met as student/teacher at a local sound engineering school. For the album they have enlisted the help of vocalists Gina Davies (When You’re in Love and She was Flying), Marina Van Rooy (Pretty) and David Barratt (Costa). The result being a smorgasboard of sounds which offer comparisons as varied from old school funk to bands of today like Mercury Rev, Lemon Jelly and of course Groove Armada.

Album opener Pretty, with its laidback guitar melodies, echoed dubby synth lines, and choral backing vocals, eases perfectly into the album. Rock’n’Roll is very much not that but as close to rockin’ out that things get. For some reason I can’t help thinking the B-52’s taking on The Strokes with an underlying fuzzy bass line to boot. Costa is a personal highlight with David Barratt providing beautiful soulful vocals to give it a very uplifting feel and drawing the aforementioned Mercury Rev comparisons. By this stage I’ve only made it to the fourth track!. Listening on and it is hard to single out individual tracks as particularly standing out. Each track puts up it’s own very good argument for inclusion.

What really draws me to this album is the variety on offer. This is not just due to the different vocalists, although that does contribute to the different feel of certain tracks. There are moments where this is little more than an acoustic guitar being strummed over soft and gentle lyrics, other times there are laidback beats with layer upon layer of blissful melodies and distractions that leave your head swimming. Sometimes it’s a funky bass line which has you foot tapping, other times it may be the summery brassy overtones which catch your attention. An initial listening gives you an indication that there’s something there that’s worth listening again to. Repeated listens have you realize it’s the perfect CD to fall asleep to, wake up to, chill out to…it’s all good. Don’t go and buy another chill out compilation, instead enjoy the down beat and funky sounds of Reno and say you were into them before they were played all over Triple J.