Kelli Ali: ‘Rocking Horse’

Formerly the pouting, sultry face of mid-90s trip-hop memories the Sneaker Pimps (best known for the classic Goldfinger-sampling 'Six Underground'), Kelli Ali sang with a wonderfully laguid poise that enamoured her to a generation of music-conscious males and females alike.

Far from those days and now three albums into a solo career, her latest project can accurately be summarised as spacious, pastoral hymns, aching with a deliciously otherworldly glaze.

Ali has been openly vocal about her inspiration for the album. During a period of extensive wanderlust across parts of the USA and Mexico, so the story goes, she “hitched a ride with a meth-addicted truck driver and journeyed through the Californian wildernesses” with a battered acoustic guitar and, sure enough, ideas for new material and a new direction surfaced. No doubt reflecting a change of perspective in her own life, as evidenced by the reflective prose on her personal website, her musical language has altered to a flowing, spiritual stream of melody, all tied together here by the sublimely rich production talent of contemporary classical composer Max Richter.

The songs on 'Rocking Horse' sound strangely out of place in today's fast-paced culture of the externally obsessed, as news and television blast constant distraction while our concrete homes hide us from nature. As if some sort of reaction to the world she left behind, Ali's music rises above the mundane with delightful instrumentation providing the backdrop for her delicate vocals. Sounding almost too precious on first listen, their beauty becomes apparent after repeated plays, actually coming to define the record resolutely as her own and incapable of being made by anyone else. It's an originality based in the graceful acceptance and subsequent adaptation of what has come before, like old rooms given a fresh coat of paint and filled with new furniture, and it's an extremely enjoyable listen.

Imagine a 16-year old Joanna Newsom covering Vashti Bunyan and Dead Can Dance and you'd be getting some way towards understanding the moods conjured up on the record. Tranquil laments whisk the listener away from their daily worries and into a dreamy flight through the imagination on the gorgeous 'September Sky' and superb lead single 'One Day At A Time', thereafter rising to a majestic high on the Dirty Three-style, electric violin driven climax of the title track.

Never feeling out of place or repetitive, the music passes through you with a subtle but definite impact, invoking a sense of calm, of ancient reveries and a deeper connection to the natural world. All in all, it comes highly recommended, especially for sensitive souls.

Released on 24th November 2008 by One Little Indian.

Written by Jody White.