| Simplicity Two Thousand | |
| Type: | studio |
| Artist: | Afterlife |
| Cover: | Afterlife - Simplicity.png |
| Alt: | Several concentric faded white circles against a brown background with a white bar across the top showing the artist name, title, track list, barcode and label name |
| Caption: | The original Simplicity cover |
| Released: | September 11, 2000 |
| Recorded: | 1996–1999, 2000 (Remixes) |
| Studio: | Steven Miller's home studio, Cheshire, England |
| Genre: | Downtempo, Balearic beat |
| Length: | 68:48 (Disc 1) 61:55 (Disc 2) |
| Label: | Hed Kandi (HEDK013) |
| Producer: | Steven Miller |
| Prev Title: | Simplicity |
| Prev Year: | 1999 |
| Next Title: | Speck of Gold |
| Next Year: | 2004 |
Simplicity is an album by electronic music producer Steven Miller aka Afterlife, released in 1999. It is more commonly known under the title of its 2000 two-disc reissue Simplicity Two Thousand, which added remixes and bonus tracks.[1] According to the label Hed Kandi: "Simplicity was originally released in Sept 1999 but ... it was quickly withdrawn to be repacked and re-marketed to a wider audience."
The album is said to capture the "hidden alter ego" of the island Ibiza. Miller, UK downtempo producer, who was in this period best known for his appearances on the previous years' Café del Mar compilations,[2] said he was "deeply affected" by the island's people and scenery when he visited and made the album as a reflection of his time there. The album includes influences of trip hop, flamenco, and lullaby.[3] Travel writer Iain Stewart called the album "Balearic music of real substance" and highlighted Rachel Lloyd's "mellifluous" vocal contributions.[4]
According to Miller, Lloyd created and recorded the vocals for the track "Breather" as improvised single-take singing. She recorded additional vocals over several recording sessions, as a "stream of vocal consciousness": without listening to the instrumental track before doing her takes. He further states that, for the 2000 rerelease, this track was reworked into a Bossa nova-style remix, with the addition of guitar and other live instruments—at the suggestion of an NRK employee, who then handled the additional studio work, and engineered the mix.[5] "Breather 2000" was subsequently included on Café del Mar Volume 7.
A reviewer for The Press praised vocalist Rachel Lloyd's performance, and gave the album four and a half stars. He wrote: "Not many acts who appear on [Café del Mar compilations] are capable of keeping it up over a whole album, let alone two, as in this case, but Lloyd and her cohorts manage it and with original material, too.[6] In the book The Mojo Collection, the album was called a "gorgeous feat of melancholy" with all twelve songs flowing "seamlessly into a beautifully executed narrative".