Search - De-Phazz :: Death by Chocolate

Perfection

LHB | Dallas, TX | 10/22/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"As most other reviewers of this band point out, describing their sound is next to impossible and invariably fails to do it justice when one resorts to specific descriptors (i.e. downtempo, ultra-cool nu lounge jazz with a meta-post-modern sensibility). Suffice it to say that what De-Phazz achieves on this and all their albums is utter perfection. One finds oneself constantly leaning into the music, awestruck by the absolute "rightness" of every lick and every production device they use. Perhaps the best observation I can add to this thread is that, after over 10 years of listening to nothing but classical, I heard a version of Ella Fitzgerald's "Wait Until You See Him" on the radio. It was so stunningly beautiful I had to stop my car and just listen. Except it COULDN"T have been by Ella, the instrumental sounds and production could not possibly have been around when her voice sounded like that. It turns out that it was the De-Phazz remix of that tune on Verve Remixed Volume I. In trying to fugure out just what it was I had heard (I didn't know a De-Phazz from a Dead Kennedy 3 months ago) I stumbled on to literally hundreds of other incredible artists in the downtempo-nu-jazz-IDM-breaks-etc. genres and ended up buying over 500 CD's, entirely from the "Dance-Electronics section of my local music stores, this summer. But De-phazz is still in a class by itself. Even if you're an insufferable Jazz Snob, who looks at anything more accessible than Coltrane's "Ascension" or Ornette Coleman's "Free Jazz" as rank Philistinism, you MUST own this CD (and Godsdog and Plastic Love Memory and Best of as well; good luck finding Detunized Gravity, but if you do, consider it a sign that you are among the true elect and chosen). And by the way, on a very high end two channel stereo, the production and recording are in a class by themselves, as is the case on all De-Phazz albums. More than anything I've ever heard, De-Phazz is an absolutely essential accoutrement to any respectable Space Age Bachelor Pad. Easily worth the price and the wait for the import."

* * * * * The VERY BEST Pazz-Jop CD of 2001, 2, & 3!!!!!!!!!

L. O'Brien | Albany, NY USA | 05/05/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Elegant, smooth, and sophisticated pop/soul/funk/jazz/electronica. So hip. So chic. So ultra cool. If only more people could experience it! It deserves 10 STARS. Every song (amazing!) is so PERFECTLY arranged, cleverly written, and perfectly performed. Brilliant musicians, singers, compositions, and arrangements. And enough electronic pops & crackles to fill five albums. It is so definitely a guilty pleasure: much too much Pop to qualify as Jazz, but full of jazz overtones and written from a jazz state of mind. Did I mention the ingenious lyrics? And so listenable: I could listen to this for days on end ... and sometimes I do! There are a handful of albums that you can say that about. IT IS WORTH THE $$$."