Philadelphia Weekly Review
Global Illage / Sushilove Sessions
(equal area records)
It's 5 a.m. Sunday morning. You've been out all night partying only to return home eager to chill out with a couple friends to soothing electronic soundscapes. There's nothing more refreshing than packing a bong and losing yourself in smooth, rinsing ambience and jazzy grooves. Consisting of members out of Philly and NYC, from other groups like the Jazzheads, King Britt's Sylk 130 and Sole Pocket, the foursome Global Illage consolidates for Sushilove Sessions, a double disc which tenders two separate excursions in to live instumental bliss - aptly titled the 'chill side' and 'ill side.' Whether there's a beat or not, Illage manages to find that groove and ride it profoundly. The 'chill' disc is synth driven, chimes-laden, dreamy, somewhat new age and drenched with jazzy undertones from sax solos to sparse guitar licks. Think late Talk Talk, ECM, or Peter Gabriel's soothing side - utterly befitting of radio shows like Star's End or Echoes. The 'ill' disc is a downright jam session with live, laid-back trip-hoppy beats and rhythms, groovy guitar and synth-guitar, heart-riding funky basslines, didgeridoos, flutes and some of the more mind-blowing trumpet solos you'll ever hear, a la Tortoise, Club d'Elf, or even The Sun Ra Arkestra. Sushilove Sessions is a breathtaking pot- pouri of jazzy, electronic ambience. There's nothing raw about it.
-Sean O Neal Philadelphia City Paper
The Philadelphia-New York improvisational quartet of Global illage and their resonant world vision is unleashed from members and collaborators of Les Nubians, String Cheese Incident, Chris Berry and Panjea, Kenny Lattimore, Jazzheads, Elwood, Sylk130, Spoken Hand Ensemble, Ursula Rucker, Boyz II Men, Zakir Hussain, King Britt and others.
The first sessions were largely group improvisations yielding two wildly divergent CDs. The lush ambience of the "chill side" is a kind of "Peter Gabriel's Passion meets ECM". On the "ill side": dark and menacing, an ill-fated futureworld of ambient punk funk abstraktions ... "tortoise meets tabla beat science".
