Stealpot Indian Salon

Stealpot is one nifty fellow from Poland with a slowly seductive blend of downtempo quirks and full on orchestral jazz arrangement. He works with several guest musicians shuffling in and out of his arrangements, not unlike a cold European Thievery Corporation, if they were only one guy. Plenty of the usual indicators occur: breathy female vocals (with occasional dubbed out whispers!), horns alone in the sonic distance or blasting funk explosions to a laid back but still hip hop beat, spacey keyboards. Surprisingly, they all work again, in a way that proves more distinctive upon repeat listenings. This is not the generic haze that Zero 7 has fallen into, but rather Stealpot's unique and intoxicating variation on a veneer that has grown expectable. To mistake a recognition of the general feel, that of, I don't know, an impossibly fashionable opium soaked lounge, for a lack of quality would be foolish.

Indian Salon, as a title, is not particularly promising. For a downtempo release, it feels like one of those listless 90s Prince titles like NewPowerSoul. While Prince failed to be particularly new, powerful, or soulful, Stealpot does a rather fine version of imagining, through sound, his own Indian Salon, and it's an exciting place to be (in a laidback way). Subtle touches emerge in a mix that sounds like lackadaisical jazz at low volumes, aided immensely by the tasteful accompaniment of a string quartet throughout (this is cold weather Europe, after all). Finding Perfect Love, in particular, is an epic of languid, bittersweet emotion, impeccably arranged.

Chanteuse Anna Ruttar adds a velvet touch to tracks such as Bassen and On Time. She's not on par with Massive Attack's glamour vocalists from the '90s (Stealpot exists on the good side of that post-Massive area that explores the pleasurable and smooth aspects of their sound but avoids the sparse, menacing and scintillating), but she is certainly ready to battle "girl in Morcheeba" any day. Rhythms that seem obligatory turn out to percolate in detailed, pleasurable ways. The cold Europe beat sense is there, but sublimely buried (Step Into Another Reality pulses with that Motorik derived clickity clack throughout), as are tons of organic instrumental idiosyncracies that never leave the pocket (and their dub tweaks). Not conspicuous at first, Indian Salon creates an enticing environment to, yes, chill out to, or vigorously engage. In an electronic genre more fixated on proven album acts than usual, Stealpot proves a refreshing discovery for the downtempo connoisseur.