The sounds that Ree-Vo weave through their debut album are eclectic, diverse and representative of their home city of Bristol, UK. In the eighties and nineties, this city was famous around the world for a sound that became known as trip-hop and the city and its scene reached its zenith with icons such as Portishead, Massive Attack and Tricky. At least that was how the mainstream might perceive it.
The reality is that such bands reaching global awareness were just the tip of a very large sonic iceberg. And, like in every scene, for every chart-topping breakout band, there were hundreds making music just as deserving of the spotlight. In Bristol, it was hip-hop and reggae renegades meeting up with white ex-punk guitarists, alternative pop pioneers hanging out with underground roots music makers, and sound system sonic stalwarts grooving out with rave’s space cadets that laid the bedrock for such an explosion. And if you think that such an eclectic melting pot ever went away, you would be wrong. Ree-Vo is all the proof that you need.
The album has it all. Hedonistic, cosmic dancehall with “Spacebox”…repeat after me “Lift off, blast off, shirt off, dance off! Naked in the dancehall SPACE BOX!”…spacious rave/hip-hop hybrids with “Combat,” spaced out, groovesome electro-reggae with “The End of the World” (I don’t know about you but I feel fine!) and dub heavy, staccato rap with “Protein”.
We all know what Bristol sounded like in its golden age. Well, if you want to know what it is going to sound like in the platinum age, tune in, turn on, and burn out to the sound of Ree-Vo. I would say that they are sonic prophets but it isn’t all about profits is it? (That joke doesn’t work so well when you write it down!)
