Sophisticated, Incredible.
01/27/2001
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Envision a group of serious musicians putting together an album which fuses styles as disparate as jazz, grunge, and jungle with north African rhythms... Julien Lourau on sax is great, and the flautist uses this neat technique of singing while he plays, forming triads, or doubling the melody he's playing. DJ Shalom's mixes are actually pretty tastefully done; they never interfere, bringing some of the tracks (notably 6 & 10) to intense heights. The drummer is freaking amazing; instead of using sped-up samples, he actually plays jungle beats. And in track 10... well, imagine someone playing a djembe solo on a trap set! Above all, though, I'm impressed by the varieties of styles these folks are putting down. Check track #2, for instance, which moves from soft jazzy feel to polished grunge (I don't know how else to describe it) & back in the space of a few minutes, climaxing with Lourau's sax solo, again pointing us towards North Africa. The song fades away with soft, Billie Holiday-esque jazz vocals. What can I say, French music's getting better. If you're interested in world music, or just interested in music with a beat, without hesitation I'd recommend this album."
Not just another electro-jazz cd
05/31/2002
(5 out of 5 stars)
"It takes a few listenings to really get into it, but whoaw, what a treat. It's dark, athmospheric, with multiple layers of sounds and weird samples, yet this never overshadows the sheer beauty of Lourau's melodies. It's a gambit in that he scraped his former Groove Gang to get into this (thankfully keeping Magik Malik whose flute works wonders in the electronic environment), but all his usual world music influences are still here. If you like it (and you will), try also another french guy's take on te style: Booster's "loop in release" (Blue note), although this one is a little bit on the lighter side of things. Also, prepare to be amazed by Mister Lourau's latest, a fantastic back-to-not-so-basics acoustic album called "The Rise" (Label Bleu), where latin meets arabic meets eastern european jazz. How does he do it?"
Track Listings (10) - Disc #1
