SAND 11 AROUND THE DAY IN A WORLD Ladomat/DM/CD Lars Bulnheim, Pascal Fuhlbrugge, and Jimi Siebels likely aren't names you can easily place, but if there's any justice in the musical community, Sand 11--the name of their band--should soon be burned into your synapses. Why? Well, we've suffered through far too many bands in this age of electronica that have simply been faking the funk. Probably most to blame is the lack of melodies in much electronic music. No, you shouldn't have to be a trained musician to succeed in 1999, but you should know how to craft a true song. Sand 11 succeed admirably here on their "Around The Day In A World" album. The first single, last year's "Under The Influence", put them firmly in with Beanfield, the Compost label, and others of that ilk who manage to meld the electronic and the acoustic for a deliciously organic result. What we get are downtempo gems like "Reculer (Pour Mieux Sauter)" that drift and flow perfectly for summer, uptempo numbers like "Outdoor Disco" that will put a saucy shimmer in any house set, and tracks like "Under The Influence" where the tempo shifts gears with precision from a headnodding to hip swinging pace in a matter of bars. Sometimes spicy with latin percussion, sometimes just content to strut, this is a fine piece of work. Bravo! --Andrew Duke Back to album reviews index