The musical trend of soft, chilled, groove-filled music is definitely captured in the first album by American duo, inc. The band is made up of brothers, Andrew and Daniel Aged, and their new album No World was written, recorded and mixed by them in 2011.
Musically the album is great. Soft vocals and snappy beats create an atmosphere that is beautiful and a little haunting.
The band has spent a lot of time touring, with acts like 50 Cent, Pharrell Williams, Beck and Cee-Lo. inc. have a sound understanding of rhythm which is probably why their music comes across as so effortless. It’s often about feeling, more than understanding.
The opening track ‘The Place’ is wonderfully dreamy. A darker feeling is captured in the songs ‘Black Wings’ and ‘Lifetime’. inc. has an ability to be creepy and endearing at the same time (kind of like an ex writing love songs about you forever).
It’s an interesting contradiction. ‘Trust (Hell Below)’ and ‘Desert Rose’ are highlights, they are the most lyrically driven of the tracks. They build in a really interesting way, in the layers of vocals and beats.
The closing track ‘Nariah’s Song’ is an instrumental that doesn’t seem to fit with the rest of the songs, it lingers in a way that makes it feel like an afterthought rather than a fitting close to quite a good album.
The duo loses points for two things.
One, it is sometimes really hard to understand the lyrics. While this fits will the effortless, chilled vibe of their music it is a little frustrating to have to listen so hard to understand what is being said.
And two, there is a slight lack of originality. Listening to the album it’s easy to hear shades of artists like the xx and James Blake. But it seems there’s still some room in the electro/R’n’B/soul genre for these newcomers.
