AM & Shawn Lee - Outlines (Deluxe Edition) (2015)

23 high quality tracks you can't get anywhere else. The transatlantic duo AM & Shawn Lee continue their journey forward via the past, digging heavily into obscure soul, sound library and soundtracks for inspiration and re-imagine them through a pop lens. AM & Shawn Lee focus heavily on synthesizers, but still keep the core organic, with live drums and bass and of course placing a heavy importance on groove.

Sonically Outlines tips it's hat to other synthesized soul productions such as The System or The Blackbyrds .

The first single "Persuasion" sets up the album perfectly with a revolving, atmospheric synth pattern suddenly interrupted by a deep funk groove peppered with staccato vocal stylings. "Cold Tears", a heartbreaking tale of a friend's false imprisonment, flows over galloping funk and sinister synths. "Again and Again", perhaps the epitome of sparse groove, is a perfect mid-tempo cruiser and a clear nod to AM's past tour mates AIR, while "Nightshine" delivers demented aerobic pop...picture Olivia Newton John's "Physical" set to a John Carpenter film.

The album title Outlines plays on a double meaning. On the one hand the record sounds like a "trace", giving no more than necessary to the production...the essentials. Lyrically, there is an undercurrent of an all too familiar modern struggle...the failure to communicate. We're only giving each other shorthand… “the outlines.”

AM & Shawn Lee's musical and artistic chemistry is very obvious especially since they have never recorded in the same room together. The duo trade tracks between London and Los Angeles until they feel the songs are complete. The process is ego-less, and both AM and Shawn Lee play nearly every instrument on the record.
Outlines is by far AM & Shawn Lee's favorite recording to date. Minimalist, future soul re-worked for today, but never forgetting what came before. Above all the music just soars.