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Release Date: 1st July 2008
Label/Distributor: One World Music
"The living, breathing epitome of the sound of sunset"-DJ Mag
This month One World Music invites you to spend a hour or so immersed in the down tempo grandeur of Afterlife's beautiful artist album, 'Speck Of Gold', the which followed up to the 40,000 selling 'Simplicity 2000'.
Originally released on the defunct Bar de Lune label this album sold 10,000 copies in just one month before it was officially deleted and made unavailable. Now repackaged and featuring additional mixes this timeless CD is finally available across Australia and New Zealand.
The charmingly horizontal Steve 'Afterlife' Miller has delivered a fine 17 track opus. Cathy Battistessa opens proceedings with the title track and fuses her balmy vocals into its minimal electronica. Afterlife favorite Rachael Calladine lends a lenitive chant to 'Clear Blue Sky', and then it's over to the dubby baggy-bubblings of 'Like Prana', a track born of Steve's Reggae/Northern roots. 'King of Chill' Chris Coco makes his vocal debut on the lugubrious 'How Does It Feel' and, with a nod and a wink to K&D's remix of Depeche Mode, delivers one of the album's stand out tracks.
Sub Sub favorite Melanie Williams picks up the tempo adding delicate whispers to 'Still', then Angela Neve brings the tempo back down by filtering her crystalline harmonies through 'Miracle'. The bonus CD takes in remixes from more leftfield luminaries: Christophe Goze re-rubs Dannii Minogue and takes her to new sub-aquatic depths. Chris Coco gets back behind the mixing desk and washes a celestial sheen over 'Shine'. Then finally it's over to Miller's Ibizian 'Release Yourself' chum, Roger Sanchez to round off the mix with his take on 'Sunrise'.
Miller's name is already synonymous with quality music, be it Reggae, Jazz, House or Down-tempo. Previously he's backed for Lee 'Scratch' Perry and honed his engineering and production techniques with Karl Pitterson (producer of Handsworth Revolution by Steel Pulse and engineer of Bob Marley's Exodus).
"I've always loved dub," laughs Steve. "I used to be in the Midland Youth Jazz Orchestra but they tried to make me wear a tux and they didn't like my long hair, so I left to join a Reggae band. That's where the Afterlife name was coined from. It's the question of my life... is there life after Jazz? Life after Reggae?
Luckily for Steve there was to be life after Reggae. He's remixed everyone from Coldplay to Jakatta, worked with Jose Padilla, K-Klass and Lenny Ibizarre to name a few, and has had tracks released on labels including Hed Kandi and Café Del Mar. As Afterlife he headlined Café Del Mar's 20th Anniversary and has played everywhere from Kumaharas to Glastonbury. His chill re-rub of Roger Sanchez's 'Another Chance' also became the only remix to make it onto the single and, by Sanchez's own admission, helped take the record to #1.
Track listing
CD1
01. Speck of Gold
02. Clear Blue Sky
03. Shine
04. Like Prana
05. How Does It Feel
06. Still
07. Smooch
08. Take Me Inside
09. Ozo
10. Miracle
11. Sunrise
Bonus CD
01. Speck of Gold (Sunset Mix)
02. Take Me Inside feat: Dannii Minogue (Christophe Goze mix)
03. Miracle (Cantoma mix)
04. Shine (Chris Coco mix)
05. Speck of Gold (Chris Coco mix)
06. Sunrise (Roger Sanchez mix)
07. Cry (Beach House mix)
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