Band Freaks

By Stone Bayliss

Right away, this tune gets an A+ on production quality and arrangement. Huge sound on this, with great changes and an awesome east-meets-west pop fusion. Liquid Blue is a high energy pop outfit with a big sound and a clear, positive message. Just imagine if Amy Grant and Ravi Shankar had a love child. Now, try to imagine they had seven of them: three vocalist/dancers, a guitarist, a drummer, a DJ and bass player, and a lead vocalist and keyboardist and sent them off to tour Asia (and if you know anything of Ravi, it’s not *entirely* out of the question … love ya’, Rav).

Liquid Blue is a world-pop fusion group based out of San Diego, California, with performance credits spanning the globe (count them … 60 countries), including a televised concert in China to an audience of 65,000 or so. Any band that has its own dancers (especially the BlueGirlsｩ dancers) probably deserves its own stadium.

“Making Up” is a positive pop tune that squarely addresses world conflict and old wounds being healed by simply letting go of the feuds and going forward from today. Okay, so I’m starting to sound a little bit like Amy Grant myself, but after the third listen I swear I was singing along. The introduction to this song is a very solid “sombati”, swimming in layers of electronic and percussive sounds; the opening hooks almost make you think you’re listening to belly dancing music. The fusion takes a sudden turn down the silk road to the oriental, and then swerves off into the western pop. Singer Nikki Nova steps in and takes over, with awesome harmonies and clean, melodic lead vocals. Of course, a nod to both the keyboardist and guitarist on this tune (Scott Stephensand Michael Vangerov, respectively). Great hooks and layers, all throughout. The transitions, I have got to say, are smooth. Well orchestrated and well performed. Kudos goes out to whomever is doing the arrangements for these guys … er … folks.

Liquid Blue may be considered too ‘bubblegum’ for some folks out there, but for anyone into the optimistic world pop fusion genre they are definitely worth a listen. In fact, this may be too super pop for some of those strongly opposed to something this squeaky-clean to even make it past the first listen. However, I would encourage my fellow haters of sub mainstream pop to go ahead … close your windows … shut your blinds … check to make sure your roomies aren’t home … then turn up the volume and just let yourself dance around the house to “Making Up” for at least one hour in your underwear. Alright, so you don’t have to do it in your drawers … but you know you want to.

Stone Bayliss
BandFreaks Staff Reviewer