Aim - Cold Water Music (1999)

Did a quick search for this album on ILM and most of the results come from stuff I've posted over the years and decades.

Anyone else a big fan of this album?
It seemed to get played at the start of every house party I went to in the early-2000s, and more often than not you'd get people asking who it was.
More recently, it's popped up in conversation a few times among people I know, all of whom have fond memories of it.
And yet I don't really remember much coverage of this album or Aim in general at the time. I seem to remember the follow-up 'Hinterland' feeling a bit basic and unfinished.
But as far as I'm concerned 'Cold Water Music' is a perfect album of its time.

Used to be a huge fan of Grand Central Records especially those early Rae & Christian, Only Child, Riton and Aim records and the Central Heating comps.

Seem to remember Hinterland getting a very good critical reception but Cold Water Music was definitely my favourite. I don't think I've ever heard his third album.

I see he's done a best-of comp with new versions of songs from Cold Water and others. I don't think Hinterland was really worth bothering with. It leaned too hard into the bland 'downtempo' style that had already been run into the ground by that point. Cold Water managed to skirt a fine line between danceable hip hop, catchy breaks and smooth downtempo, and doesn't really let up until the three-song instrumnetal suite at the end

I lie, the last song has vocals.

I like CWM and Hinterland. Nothing wrong with downtempo if it's done well.

I wouldn't call this track bland at all, it uses space and dynamics too well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkLvrkLd1Dc

Taken on its own merits it's not a bad track but it sounds like something that would have benefited from more of a vocal.
Hinterland was much more instrumental compared to CWM, and that breaksy chillout sound was starting to get played-out by 2002.
The beats are nice enough but they get repetitive after a while. Nightmares on Wax's 'Mind Elevation' from the same year suffered from similar issues.

> sounds like something that would have benefited from more of a vocal.

May I recommend the album he did w/ QNC?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8y3YqOIDSAI