They say you can tell a lot about someone by the company they keep. If the same is true of music makers, then it is clear that the two guys who make up Le Sonic know what they are doing; you just have to take a quick look at their resume.
Mike Rogers’ first hit was nothing less than Deeelite’s groundbreaking “Groove is in the Heart”, and he has also worked with the great and the good of the music industry, everyone from Sinead O’Connor, Graham Nash and Erasure to The Fat Boys, Randy Brecker, and Omar Hakim. And when Gary Lefkowith isn’t riding the charts with his band HiFi or getting shortlisted for prestigious songwriting awards, he can be found promoting not insignificant artists such as Elvis, Mick Jagger, and Prince.
They are impressive as individuals, but when you put them together as Le Sonic does, you have a production and engineering team par excellence. Riverside Drive is a great example of their musical prowess.
A neat slice of smooth and seductive jazz, Riverside Drive is also infectious and instantly memorable, thanks to the cool riffs that come courtesy of Jim Hynes’s often muted, always marvellous trumpet refrains and Scott Kreitzer’s smooth and occasionally sassy saxophone.
But a song is about more than just the hooks that draw you in on the first listen. Spend a bit of time with the tune, and you can hear the attention to detail that runs through a Le Sonic production, from the kick of the bass drum to the heavenly harmonies that glide and dance across the top of the song.
Gorgeous, seductive and eminently re-spin-able. What more could you ask for?
