Search - Saru :: Downtempo Dojo

A hidden gem

T. Stanley Mcginnis | 11/07/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I bought this album here on Amazon.com as it was on special offer with another album I ordered. I knew nothing of this album except for all the positive reviews it got here. What a fine discovery this was....
Every track here is brilliant. Melodic foregrounds over hip hop-esque beats. I think its wrong to classify this as a "chillout" album. While it is very relaxing to listen to, there's more to this than your standard ten a penny chillout albums that are cropping up everywhere. If this album is anything to go by, Saru will be one of the big names in the future. I can't say enough good things about this album. Buy it now, you won't be disappointed."

Trippy downtempo without the gloss

Scott Woods | Columbus, Ohio United States | 04/03/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"While "trip-hop" and "chill-out" as genre labels may seem to encompass a LOT of different types of stuff, nothing begins to approach the diversity of this record. It's downtempo tracs are WAY down, and even when it chills-out, it isn't totally relaxing. A lot of bigger names tend to wash their tracks with a lot of ambient swells and stock beats, but not Saru: you get MORe than your money's worth of ear candy here.And at the price they're selling it for, it's a steal that'll make you the cool kid on the block. A super-strong if over-divergent album for the open-minded chiller."

Downtempo Bliss

Noel | Toronto, Ontario | 10/15/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"After dropping numerous samples of what was to be expected for his first full-length recording, Steve Branson finally unleashes a well-crafted melodic gem in Downtempo Dojo. If you've been following Shadow Record's onslaught of compilations, cuts such as the album-opening "Posterity," the utterly gorgeous "Bamboo Shadow" and the hypnotic masterpiece "Subterra" will ring a familiar tone in your ear. But the great thing about Downtempo Dojo is that Branson's joined all the tracks together, bleeding into one another and allowing the listener to float from cut to cut of continually soothing and atmospheric beats. Saru's material on the Shadow compilations was a very promising sign as to what the Los Angeles-based beat manipulator was capable of producing. Rest assured that the trend continues by adding equally fantastic numbers such as "Contact," with its gradual rising tempo, from lazy beats to borderline drum & bass, to the percussion-heavy "Jade," which even though has a hefty snare, somehow manages having the placed subtle notes lead the journey. Downtempo Dojo is simply a gorgeous record with epic length songs that is bound to satisfy heads from various musical genres. Headphone music at its finest and something for the blunted."