with the first listen of terra deva's singing on furry phreake's "soothe" i fell instantly in love with that voice and along with a number of others like diane charlemagne, deva is one of my favourite singers within dance music. it's those high tones that does it but the phrasings as well and the marriage of this voice to the tracks. for most of the time, deva's been associated with three producers. i do think the works with charles webster has been the best but i also like the songs with joshua michaels and darren biegel aka bugs.
in '98 came the only full length album so far in deva's career and to be honest i don't think it's a great effort as it's quite patchy but it does have some strong points. "lethal" is really aided by the guitar riff that has been replayed from isaac hayes' classic "walk on by" but also because of the emotion pouring out of deva. "over it" which is a fun but bumping broken beat cut and "fresh start" is great as well. however on i have listened to much to herbert's remix for me to get over the fact the original is drum & bass.
"devastate" is one of the most experimental songs on the album and i think deva and bugs really had fun with it. the beats are sort of pseudo drum & bass in that there is a rinsing drumbreak lurking to drop but it's kept in and i like the teases and the hints of double time. the vocals are treated with distortion and effects at times when you hear a chunky organ, here played by dave warrin.
terra deva's background of singing jazz definitely lurks latent in this song but also at the end of the album where a nice cover of jazz standard "speak low" is included. i quite like the playful approach to the song in both musical layers and while it's quite out of place in the album, it's a brilliant song.
buy here (junodownload)
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