CFCF: The Colours Of Life Vinyl LP CFCF

First-ever vinyl pressing of CFCF aka Michael Silver’s sophisticated new age epic originally released on cassette by 1080p Collection. When this dropped in 2015, we remembered the name CFCF from countless remixes in the hype machine / blogspot era, but had our expectations completely obliterated by the beauty and tenderness of The Colour Of Life. Various strains of pop-facing new age, new age-facing pop and Phil Collins’ “Hand In Hand” served as the primary inspiration for this seamless 41 minute piece. Says Silver: “I started writing this stuff in the first half of 2011. I was living in Paris for a few months in a tiny one-room apartment with my then-girlfriend, and didn’t really have any proper music equipment on me aside from my laptop. I was really getting further into some really cornball music like the Windham Hill label, and some of the outer edges of Innovative Communications. And I got into the idea of doing a record of music like that, that would incorporate a lot of this stuff I was listening to and be of use as like, call waiting background music, just the most pleasant thing and kind of trying to push to the edges of tolerable cheese in some places, but also have it be totally sincere and not ironic, like actually purely pleasurable music.” The piece is dissected into 12 pulsing movements that gently shift shape like sunshine and storms alternately drifting in over the horizon, manifested in crystal clear arrangements of vaporous pads, MIDI instruments, ethno-folk percussion, saxophone and loads of pan flute. It’s one of the most enduring releases from 1080p’s prolific output around that time, one of the few we keep returning to. Dip In The Pool’s Tatsuji Kimura pitches in on “Rain Dance” and “Intimacy”; also check out “The Pyramid,” “Tropical Realities,” “A Real Dream” and “Return.” Reissued on Michael Silver’s own BGM Solutions imprint, features 12” square reproduction of the original cassette artwork designed by Bobby Houlihan with fingerpainting by Brooklyn elementary school students. Recommended. 

• black vinyl pressing
• originally released on cassette in 2015
• first time on vinyl
• music label: BGM Solutions 2019

reviewed by laughable butane bob 10/2019