SONG OF THE DAY (#171)

'deep love,' by mandalay

after hearing a few notes from nicola hitchcock's heaven-kissed pipes, you might think you're listening to the second coming of liz fraser. for saul freeman, who placed an advert in the sadly defunct 'melody maker,' nicola's response was probably nothing short of providential. her voice is the perfect instrument for saul's 'ethereal' soundscapes [i kind of don't like that word--ethereal, it's waaaaay overused--but since i can't pull anything better out of my vocab, it will have to suffice]. nicola uses her fragile vibrato to much greater effect than most vocalists who let it get away from them to the point where it's a distraction [you know who i'm talking about]. instead, nicola exercises plenty of restraint while keeping her voice's integrity in tact. it's a beautiful instrument, that one. they released two albums in the UK, and 'solace' [a compilation of those two discs] in the US in 2001. this is electronic mood music of the highest order.

unfortunately, mandalay split sometime shortly after the release of 'solace.' however, nicola has soldiered on. she released 'passive agressive' in 2005 [which i've not yet heard, but i'm sure it's fantastic]. saul, in the meantime, works as a a producer, engineer and does all that fancy knob-twidling stuff. if you're interested, you can check out the vid for 'beautiful' here, and a live version of 'kissing the day' here. yet another band i really miss...

��� mandalay: deep love
��� mandalay: beautiful
��� mandalay: not seventeen
��� mandalay: kissing the day

��� mandalay: solace
��� mandalay: solace [remix disc]