Worlds Apart
Blue Stone are among the dozens of electronica pop groups that emerged in the wake of Enigma and Delerium. Like those projects, Blue Stone manage to be upbeat and moody, lush but chilled, deploying insistent looped grooves, seductive textures, and exotic touches of chant, world music tidbits, and breathy singers.  And that's just the opening track of their second album,Worlds Apart. Blue Stone are the brainchild of Robert Smith, who produces a similar project called Bella Sonus, and Bill Walters. Their interlocked sequencers, echoing atmospheres, and rhythms that gurgle and shudder like virtual tribal insect drummers, are fronted by vocalist Sheyenne Rivers.  She walks the erotic/ecstatic line like a hooker attaining nirvana, singing heavy-breathing songs of love and vague mysticism. Her helium-pitched Greek chorus on "Far Away" is definitely a new wrinkle in the formula. A couple of other singers, Samantha Sandlin and Maura Hurley, handle the faux operatic arias of tracks like "Envy," "Voleti," and "Take Flight."  Some of them recall, perhaps a little too closely, the alien aria fromThe Fifth Element, and even Yanni's take on the famous Delibes aria. With glitchy effects and an absence of blanketing synth string pads, Blue Stone take a genre that has drifted into the middle of the road and put a bit of edge on it--but just alittlebit.--John Diliberto