Phil Edwards Band – Slow Borders (Rhythmethod) CD REVIEW

A Kiwi band inspired by the sound of John Mayer; surely what we’ve all been waiting for? In fact, they liked Mayer so much, they hired his producer, who mastered the album in New York.
The music has that low-key groove familiar to fans of Jack Johnson, and it has that blue-eyed funk feel of James Taylor when he’s “getting on down” – highly polished, no-sweat white-boy grooves, but grooves nevertheless.
There’s something to be said for Edwards’ control, and the discipline of his six-piece band. These performances are well executed, and he’s left plenty of space in the arrangements, which suggests that he may have spent some time with Little Feat albums in the dim distant past, and taken a few lessons from the low-down shuffles of Lowell George and his crew.
But… and it’s a big ‘but’. You can see from the unimaginative title of the band, and the title of the record (what is a ‘slow border’, exactly?) that there’s a certain lack of spirit and adventure here. It’s totally catholic.
While Slow Borders is nicely recorded, nicely arranged, nicely performed, nicely engineered, and nicely mastered, it induced instant entropy in this listener. GARY STEEL
MUSIC = 3/5
SOUND = 4/5