Search - Various Artists :: Chill Out

The Windham Hill version of Ambient/Chill-Out

Scott Woods | Columbus, Ohio United States | 06/03/2001

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Don't be fooled by the cheap price, even though its a 2 cd set: it's still not worth it. This collection wants you to believe that it's a sampling of the sounds, tension and flavor of chill-out/ambient music that's all over the club scene right now, but the truth of the matter is it's more new age than anything else.You ever sat around with a bunch of old-school jazz musicians talking about R&B or rap or rock music today? Sound bitter, don't they? Like to say things like, "all they're doing is playing 4/4 time and putting a vocal on it or some such thing. Anybody can do that." It's this type of thinking that gave us smooth jazz that all sounds like Kenny G's "Songbird", and I imagine it was conversation like this in some Windham Hill office between John Tesh and Yanni that brought this CD to fruition.It STARTS off wrong: a 34 minute droll rambling medley of tunes, none of which fly. Then it's followed by a host of other tracks that sound like old Casio keyboard ruminations of hip-hop, ambient and new age. Really cheese stuff, folks. Sounds like the demos on those keyboards in the mall. You've been TOTALLY warned."