Design By Humans
Published On: Wed, Feb 3rd, 2016

5to4: Tip It

5to45to4
Tip It
(self-released)

The desperate piano and drums bounce on the opener and title track ā€œTip It,ā€ setting us on our way to the new EP from the UKā€™s 5to4. Phil Goss leads the concoction here. He has an expressive, if limited, voice mining Radiohead, Ben Folds Five, and even a smidgen of Peter Gabriel in these three songs offered here. The first song flows around aĀ bouncy piano, but thereā€™s enough to the production, little percussion touches and Gossā€™s vocal delivery is dramatic enough, that the song doesnā€™t overstay itā€™s welcome and rolls us through a few movements.Ā ā€œItā€™s not That Itā€™s Notā€ relies on a lighter touch, with Goss plinking the higher octaves of his piano and his nearly-talking vocals commenting on a relationship. An acoustic guitar and, once again, a creative drum beat/sound moves this lament. Midway through, things pick up in intensity with a different keys sound, then we are back to where we were with horn accents. Again, Goss doesnā€™t change things up so much as he knows where to place his dramatic moments, lets them breathe and then gets back to where he was.Ā The funky ā€œWalkā€ ends with high-end warbling, Herbie Hancock-like leading keys over flicking electric guitar, creating the best tune on Tip It. It continues with Goss leading on electric piano, then some synth as, yes, while itā€™s basically a blues jam, I do like to hear someone this obviously adept at tinkling the ivories have at it.

You can listen to the album here.

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5to4: Tip It