Search - Ursula 1000 :: All Systems Are Go Go

Eighteenth Street Lounge has positioned itself as the ultimate chill-out label, purveying a cosmopolitan blend of vocal and instrumental styles with a strong Brazilian influence over jazzy, laid-back grooves. However, even the most dedicated lounge hipster likes to pick up the pace once in a while, and All Systems Are Go Go fills that need handily. Alex Gimeno (a.k.a. Ursula 1000) has previously released The Now Sound of Ursula 1000, which featured his own music; this CD is a continuous DJ mix of international tracks of what the Germans call "Easylistening." The record kicks off with a blare of horns from Japan's ECD, remixed by Pizzicato Five's Yasuharu Konishi. The music is sounds like the movie scores of '60s and '70s composer Peter Thomas bolstered by the late '90s big-beat drum tracks that persist throughout the CD. Berlin's Bungalow Records is represented with a Southern-fried organ-groove track from Le Hammond Inferno, and England's Skeewiff follow with a kitschy lounge-flavored track that's characteristic of the Brighton sound. Other ESL friends such as Nicola Conte put in appearances, and a track from England's Jadell is spun around the guitar riff from Can's "I Want More" (fresh from its appearance on the Workshop track of the Deutscher Funk compilation). While the beat is a bit too unvarying throughout, there are some welcome breaks from the horn-heavy lounge-exotica musical emphasis; the Hardwire and Trio Electro tracks include some hip-hop samples, and Los Chicharrons and El Loco Gringo's appealingly ersatz Latin styles hold up the latter half of the mix. --Bob Bannister