The Beauty Room

Vocalist JINADU and producer KIRK DEGIORGIO first collaborated on the AS ONE album "21st Century Soul" (Ubiquity) in 2001. Both have worked mainly in the electronic dance genre - recording for a wide range of labels from Mo' Wax to Bitches Brew. The Beauty Room came about through continued collaboration, with Degiorgio sending Jinadu sketches of songs with increasingly unusual progressions. Jinadu worked his magic enhancing them with catchy melodies, hooks galore and layers of rich harmonies. The Beauty Room marks a notable stylistic shift for both Jinadu and Degiorgio. A debut single - a deft adaptation of Jan Hammer's 1977 song Don't You Know - was recently released on Parlophone's Vanity Projects offshoot and whilst it may have been a typically teasing Degiorgio hors d'oeuvre, its in the shape of a self-titled album that The Beauty Room present their full, lavish feast. Opener Soul Horizon sets the tone; its lulling acoustic guitar intro presaging a phalanx of harmonies which usher in a melodic reverie of a song that could be a gently billowing outtake from the first Crosby Stills & Nash album. It's a languorous intoxication that continues as the album gathers its own mellow pace. Everywhere Jinadu's harmonies weave, glide and plunge around the rippling guitars of (fellow Peacefrog artist) Ian O'Brien, marble smooth keyboards courtesy of Tom O'Grady, Chris Whitten's crisp but discreetly funky drums and Degiorgio's babbling electronic undercurrents. Holding On is a deft, soulful Fender Rhodes ballad with a chorus that sticks like superglue; "The Weight of the World nods to The Beach Boys at their most transcendent, while Shades of Yesterday , with Degiorgio adroitly taking care of vocal duties, is an intimate, hypnotic confessional, with a redemptive, orchestral refrain. There's an undeniable sense of timeless urban sophistication at play here. Indeed, this album most readily brings to mind those high priests of the cerebral groove Steely Dan What

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