★★☆☆☆
Here is a phenomenon: a trio of middle-aged men who are among the biggest EDM DJs in the world, yet remain unknown to the wider public. Perhaps that is because so much of Above & Beyond’s new album sounds like the kind of music that utilities companies use when they want to calm you down as they put you on hold for an hour: relentlessly slick, unfailingly melodic, impossible to remember the moment it finishes.
You can hear how this combination of ambient trance and banging beats must go down a treat at raves, with the singer Justine Suissa suggesting that everyone get naked just as Naked reaches a feverish climax, and Tightrope having the requisite air of hedonistic abandon to make thousands of people in a field lose it completely.
There is a pleasingly hypnotic mood throughout, and the gentle vocals from the guest singers Suissa, Zoë Johnston and Richard Bedford are calming, but the lack of humour and character ultimately makes the appropriately named Common Ground an anodyne listen. (Anjunabeats)