The Vitals:

Label: Alibi Vinyl
Genre: House
Number of Tracks: 5 (Only 2 given for review)
How to Obtain: www.alibivinyl.co.uk

Factor Scores:

Production Quality: 6.0
Programming and Arrangement: 7.8
Entertainment Quality: 7.5
Total: 7.1 – Good

Brian's Take:

From the artist Avatar comes the EP Progressive Strut, courtesy of Alibi Vinyl. The release is five songs in length. Although the label provided us with only two of the five songs, I did my best in evaluating the EP as a whole. The two songs, respectively, come with two different sides. On one side a shallow, commercial-sounding piece. On the other side a darker, more layered spin on the same concept.

"Piano Talk", the first of the two tracks with which we were provided, is a radio-friendly, sample-laden house tune. The main vocal sample that stood out to me was a clear lift from BT's "The Force Of Gravity", amongst many other symbiotically energetic vocal loops. Being the type of listener I am, I found this song to lack musical depth and to be a waste of time.

On the contrary, "Retox" was simply made with a much higher standard of quality. Going the sample route again, Avatar borrowed lyrics from the Fatboy Slim song of the same name. At the least, this song has a certain level of musical individuality and passion that is just not evident in "Piano Talk". "Retox" will much better suit house DJs and an overall "club setting".

Although parts of this release were enjoyable and others weren't, neither of the tracks exerted very strong production values. My advice is to pop "Retox" into your CD deck or onto your turntable for as many spins as suits your style, but at the end of the day, the Progressive Strut release won't go down in history as any kind of classic.