Wow, apparently it is over twenty years since 4AD released the first Thievery Corporation album. That is seriously scary shit right there. That makes me…well, I guess it makes me…old. Still, eight albums on, the upside of this revelation is that Eric Hilton and Rob Garza, the founding fathers responsible for so many scintillating excursions in dub, reggae and trip-hop, remain as compelling as ever.
The beauty of Thievery Corporation has always been their diversity, coupled with their ability to somehow maintain their own idiosyncrasies. You could hear any track from The Temple Of I & I and not be remotely surprised when you found out who was responsible for it, but at the same time, each track is different enough for you to be suitably impressed. Perhaps what has kept them fresh all these years is the seemingly endless supply of collaborators, of which there is once again no shortage. The most engaging tracks often seem to feature Connecticut R&B/reggae supremo Notch, harking back to the genre’s glory days with the likes of Misty In Roots or Culture, but it would be unfair to single merely those particular cuts out for praise, for every one of the contributing artistes here makes an equally eloquent impression.
It would be futile to list all of the aides above, but what I can do is cherry pick my personal favourites, so, aside from the aforementioned Notch pieces, midway through the set we have ‘Time + Space‘, which features long term associate Loulou Ghelichkhani and is a Utopian dream of off-beats and whimsical imagery. Then there is another Thievery stalwart, Mr Lif, enthusing tunes like ‘Fight To Survive‘ with the kind of defiant hip-hop that we all thought had died out in the mid-nineties. But had it? No sirree. On this evidence, Lazarus has been usurped to such a degree that he is grabbing his coat and hat and taking his ball home.
‘Lose To Find‘ is another winner, with Elin Melgarejo‘s hushed vocals complementing the blanket of chillwave which shrouds us irresistibly. The Temple Of I & I, in essence, is the sound of a collective who know where their strengths lie, have an unwavering belief in themselves, and possess a profound ability to get the best out of their star cameos. Immersing yourself into an album by Thievery Corporation is like walking into a world where the performers have wrapped up all the worries and traumas of the world in a plastic bag and flung it unceremoniously out of the window. This is truly music for a purer soul and what’s not to like about that?
The Temple Of I & I is released on 10th February through ESL Music.
