Colours – Ivory

Colours are a duo comprised of Kyle Tamo, vocals, and Morgan Alley, drums, they headed in a different musical, and geographical, direction when Kyle relocated from Conneticut to Florida and the duo began to lay the foundations of Colours. Their sound is a significant departure from any of their previous rock oriented endeavours, Colours are described as an electro-R&B rock band, after listening to Ivory I feel that the musical emphasis is firmly on the first two elements of that description. Colours entered the studio last year to record Ivory, their debut album, which is the follow up their 2013 Skin And Bones EP.

Ivory is underpinned by a dark R&B synth backing that conjures up a certain kind of painfully hip nightclub at 1am, over this are multi-layered vocals that drift over the beat. If that description sounds like the soundtrack to your Saturday night on the town, and you appreciate a darker, smokier electronic take on R&B then this is an album you should investigate, however, for me the album just doesn’t display enough variety, it remains in a slow late night electro grind throughout it’s entirety.

I’ll be honest, this really isn’t an album that appeals to me, it comes across as music that you hear whilst you’re wishing you were somewhere else, see my previous reference to painfully hip nightclubs. I prefer music to energise me, to make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up or to just grab my attention, and Ivory just doesn’t do that. This is a collection of dark electronica and I can imagine Colours being very successful, they have a clear cross genre appeal with their mix of darkwave and R&B beats, but if it’s all the same I’ll be in the dive bar round the corner until everyone else is ready to go home. I should also point out that calling your band Colours, and naming the album after a colour, means that any google search for this album tends to be heavy on decorating and DIY stores.

Ivory is available direct from Victory Records here