Booka Shade : Memento

  Chelonis R. Jones - Vocals

A proper album rather than a collection of single sides and remixes in the usual house music tradition, Booka Shade's full-length debut has the shapely flow of one long composition. After the two previously released singles that open the album, 'Vertigo' and 'Double Identity,' the album settles into a leisurely flow that incorporates a handful of relatively brief, melodic interludes that function as breathers between the electronic throb of key tracks like 'S.T.A.R.R.Z.' and 'Something Physical.' At album's end, the nearly ambient neo-psychedelia of 'Moonstruck' (which includes a string sample oddly reminiscent of the hook from the Flaming Lips' 'Race for the Prize' ) caps the record with an intriguingly experimental coda. ~ Stewart Mason, All Music Guide