Above & Beyond Dish Out Some “Group Therapy”
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“Group Therapy” might just change that.
It’s hard to believe that Above & Beyond, composed of members Jono Grant, Tony McGuinness, and Paavo Siljamäki, have only really reached their current zenith of fame in the past half decade or so.
Sure, they’ve been churning out remixes since the early 2000s, but it was around the time “Alone Tonight” came off their first album “Tri-State” that they secured the broad name recognition they enjoy now.
Now, having established respected names in the broad field of trance music, with other projects including the group OceanLab and the Anjunabeats label, Above & Beyond sought to increase their cult following with their third (counting OceanLab’s “Sirens of the Sea”) release, “Group Therapy.”
From the opening shimmer of “Filmic” to the bittersweet build of “Eternal,” “Group Therapy” grooves along to the familiar A&B formula of echoing vocals over rippling beats.
However, whereas “Tri-State” rarely devolved into staccato, and “Sirens of the Sea” was quite possibly the smoothest trance release of the past decade, “Group Therapy” has more grit to the sound, with bigger beats in the background and more emphasis on independent synth builds throughout the tracks.
That’s not to say that their overall sound is any rougher though. If there’s one thing that Above & Beyond has absolutely mastered, it’s the flawless interplay between vocals and instrumentals.
In a genre where lyrics are often insipid and honestly quite uninspired, Above & Beyond wring heartbreak and frustration out of their vocal contributors, to beautiful effect.
Tracks like “You Got To Go” and “Love Is Not Enough” open up with driving staccato pulses, but quickly mellow out after the addition of vocals, while tracks like “Black Room Boy,” “Giving It Out,” “On My Way To Heaven,” and “Sun In Your Eyes” run along at a faster clip at the expense of the listenability of the vocals.
On the flip side, tracks “Sweetest Heart” and “Only A Few Things” are fluffy tracks; while they are beautiful in their vocal aimless lightness, they aren’t the kinds of tracks one would expect from a group like Above & Beyond, who have ostensibly perfected the art of creating and maximizing anticipation and movement.
Above & Beyond succeed most in the tracks which treat the voice as a showcase, but still complimentary, component of the tracks. Artists like jazz composer Maria Schneider have used the human voice in such a manner before, and the effect is equally breathtaking in electronic music.
Tracks like “Alchemy,” “Sun & Moon,” “Thing Called Love,” and especially “Prelude” play up that voice-as-instrument component, by having the vocals fade slightly into the backing beats in the first three named track and fade almost completely in “Prelude.”
In that sense, “Prelude” is the most animated and interesting track on the entire album, combining a calypso-esque pulse with an indistinguishable but inspired choral line.
Is “Group Therapy” anything incredibly innovative? Not particularly, but Above & Beyond’s formula has proven both commercially and critically successful, and at least “Alchemy” and “Thing Called Love” will definitely have a long post-album life through remixes.
As a trance album, “Group Therapy” is solid, and is sure to only further the Above & Beyond name. It is not necessarily the revelation that their most rabid fans might claim, but rather a clear reminder that one of the best electronic groups in the world is still more than capable of putting out new releases as they are rehashing and editing other peoples’ work.
