Greg Long - Balance (2002)

Not to be confused with the Christian singer/songwriter of the same name, Greg Long is a downtempo producer/remixer with a taste for jazzy grooves that are so restrained and tasteful that at times, they almost disappear into the ether. His 2002 debut long-player, Balance, is uniformly smooth and appealingly mellow, but there's so little difference between these 14 tracks that the album could have been mixed and sequenced as a one or two multi-part suite, and no one would be the wiser. It's not until the appealingly disorienting two-part closer "Zip" that any of the songs have particularly intriguing melodies. A bassist first and foremost, Long builds all of the songs on slippery fretless bass grooves that give the album a pleasantly retro sound quality, bolstered by Fender Rhodes-style keyboard sounds, and a preponderance of mellow, tasty grooves. If hot tub parties were still fashionable, Balance would be perfect for the evening's soundtrack.