Heights Of Abraham

Heights Of Abraham - Two Thousand And Six - 2005 - Twentythree

Heights of Abraham are Jake Harries, Sim Lister & Steve Cobby. Steve Cobby (one half of Fila Brazillia), and Harries and Lister (ex Chakk, Sheffield steel city funksters) formed the "model chill-out with dreamy vapours" Heights of Abraham in 1993. Their first release, Humidity (1993), was decribed by Dave Simpson in Melody Maker "....the beauty of this album. Airy melodies rub up against subsonic bass, aural hallucinogens hide vividly real scenes, and there's always a surprise lurking around the corner." In Select Magazine Emma Warren described their 1995 release Electric Hush as: "One to file along with Massive Attack's 'Blue Lines', Mr Fingers' 'Classic Fingers' and Marvin Gaye's 'What's Goin' On?' - records that can't fail to make you feel. There's singing from Jake Harries' bass-tone voice, and the summer classic, 'EVA' that re-appropriates saxophones (Lister) away from chatshow intros and back into a glorious self-sufficient shimmer of melody. You'd be hard pressed to find a classier set of tunes, tears and soul-food bass this side of New York. An instant classic." Richard Dorfmeister describes the Heights of Abraham most recent release, Two Thousand and Six (2006): "Completely underrated downbeat album by Mr. Steven Cobby and friends - highly recommended.."

"Two Thousand And Six" is another brilliant downtempo electronica album from the sublime Heights Of Abraham. HOA originally recorded for the legendary Pork Recordings label, who produced such great artists as Baby Mammoth, Leggo Beast, Solid Doctor, Bullitnuts, Fila Brazillia, and Moss. Most of these Pork Recordings releases are superb, groundbreaking downtempo electronica albums. Listen to Baby Mammoth's "Motion Without Pain", Leggo Beast's "From Here to G", Solid Doctor's "How About Some Ether?: Collected Works 93-95", Bullitnuts' "A Different Ball Game", Fila Brazillia's "Jump Leads", and Moss' wonderful "East Coast Chip Shop". If you can purchase the original CD's, you will better appreciate the wonderful sonic quality of these classic albums. Search A.O.O.F.C for some of these albums. If you find any broken links, please report them. Bullitnuts' 1998 "A Different Ball Game" album can be found @ BNUTS/ADBG You can find Baby Mammoth's "Swimming" album @ BABMAM/SWMG Check out info on some of Pork Recordings greatest albums @ GREAT PORK ALBUMS Of all the albums mentioned in Pork's catalogue, arguably the greatest one is the classic Heights Of Abraham "Humidity" which can be found @ HOA/MUMY "Scoundrel" said this about "Humidity" on www.discogs.com, "Terribly underrated and nearly forgotten, the Heights of Abraham’s Humidity is a classic trip-hop album that never really got its due. And that’s a pity, since the band comprises of one half of Fila Brazillia and vocalist Jake Harries. “Still Waiting” is an absolutely gorgeous track, and, to this day, I still sing along with it when I hear it. “Sportif” is a wonderfully, bouncy mid-tempo track, while “In the Cold” takes us back to romance. “Love Flows Down” becomes an ethereal track, but “10.55” returns things to earth with a humorous spoken word riff on a small town. And the final track, “Tides,” ebbs and flows like the real thing, if instead of water, you had electro. Listen to this album and keep the spirit alive".

TRACKS

1 Intruder (4:35)
2 Striplight (4:50)
3 Bay Systems (5:00)
4 Open Source (4:43)
5 As The Night Descended (5:46)
6 Blackout (4:40)
7 Western Edge (3:15)
8 Silver Waltzers (7:01)
9 New World City (5:06)
10 Alt. Wakiki (5:07)
11 Everybody Knows (4:45)

COMPOSERS

All tracks composed by Cobby, Harries, Lister, except Track 8, by Cobby, Lister

MUSICIANS

Sim Lister (sax/programming)
Jake Harries (vocals/lyrics)
Steve Cobby (guitar/programming)

REVIEWS

After a ten-year sabbatical, three-piece UK trip-hop pioneers Heights of Abraham have returned. With an updated approach to their production techniques facilitated by a vast improvement in the tools available compared to the early ’90s, Sim Lister and Steve Cobby (one half of Fila Brazilia) lay down some sensual chill-out instrumentals for Jake Harries’ haunting vocals to float above. Indeed, Harries didn’t see the producers during the entire project as it was sent back and forth between computers. Harries’ soothing voice is hypnotic and it’s easy to ignore the words as he takes the vocal melody beyond lyricism. Although the song structures are fairly rudimentary, there is sufficient variation in sound and style traversing everything between the Mezzanine bass lines and breaks of “Open Source” and the soulful psychedelic synths of “Intruder,” with each track dissipating tension like a massage for the mind. (Put On Your Drinking Cap) © Rob Woo, exclaim.ca

Heights of Abraham are Sim Lister, the brains behind 23 Records and once part of the nascent Sheffield scene from the early 80s; vocalist and Lister's old Chakk team-mate Jake Harries; and Steve Cobby, one half of notorious beats & bobs explorers Fila Brazillia and Lister's 23 Records co-conspirator. While they've hardly been twiddling their thumbs, 'Two Thousand and Six', apart from being the first Heights record where everything is under their control, is their first since 'Humidity' (1993) and 'Electric Hush' (1994, re-released on ZTT in 1996). The essence of their previous 'freestyle techno' remains, with fresher focus on accessibility and melody, vocals and more straight song formats. offers Steve. "If anything, we're trying to make a grown up album," offers Steve, "without it being pipe & slippers music. We're still flying the flag for quality and invention, and trying to investigate that massive grey area no-one wants to occupy." There's no denying that Heights of Abraham maximise the conventions of late night tales and 'all-back-to-mine' get-togethers - rivulets of tingling, cyclic keys, soft-top horns and windswept tranquillity. "With chill-out", Steve remarks, "people think you really not meant to listen to it, you put it on as background music. But here, there's a lot to listen to." 'Two Thousand and Six' is therefore a classic, slow-burning soul massage of electric relaxation, continually bobbing between the sticky heat of summer siestas and the nip of the night air. Features 11 tracks including 'Striplight', 'Open Source', 'Western Edge', 'New World City', 'Everybody Knows', 'Intruder' and more. © www.music-city.org/Heights-of-Abraham/Two-Thousand-and-Six-585845/

BIO (Wikipedia)

The Heights of Abraham is an electronica collaboration based in Sheffield and Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire in North-East England. Formed in the mid 1990s by Steve Cobby, Sim Lister and Jake Harries, they play electronica, ambient techno, and chill out. Formed in 1992 their debut releases (Tides EP and Humidity LP) came in 1992 on the ambient-downtempo label Pork Recordings (also based in Hull). With David McSherry; who forms Fila Brazilia with Cobby; Cobby and Lister created their own music label, Twentythree Records.

MORE ABOUT T.H.O.A

Downtempo production team Heights of Abraham recorded two full-lengths and a few EPs for Pork Records during the early- to mid-'90s trip-hop movement. Being rather typical of the movement, Heights of Abraham lost momentum around the same time the movement began to get overly commercial. Group members Sim Lister (sax/programming), Jake Harries (vocals/lyrics), and Steve Cobby (guitar/programming) spent time with other projects: Lister and Harries were part of Chakk, and Cobby had considerable success as Fila Brazillia. © Jason Birchmeier, All Music Guide