First off, from France's excellent Yellow Productions label comes a pair of
winners. First off there's Dimitri from Paris's EP called 'Esquisses' (subtitled
"Very stylish music for a woman's paradise"). This is basically a four song EP,
with 3 short tracks in between (giving the illusion of 7 tracks on the sleeve).
There is a definite potpourri of styles at play here, starting with the abstract
hip-hopish "Reverie". "Par Un Chemin Different" is a jazzy number in 3/4 time
(with what I suppose one may say a very French sound). "Un Woman's Paradis" is
also quite jazzy, though in a UFO/new-bossa sort of way, and spoken female voice
samples thrown in and about (a la a Chris the French Kiss production). The
winner of the EP though is "Free Ton Style" which is a soulful house workout in
a vein that only Yellow could come up with.
Another Chris the French Kiss production is the new 3 songer from Fresh Lab. The
vibe is certainly more towards the Mighty Bop school, and slow is the way of the
walk. "L'Angoisse" is the best cut which is a very electronic experimental hip
hop stomper. Lots of synth and keyboard sounds, but the 'old school' style
drumloops keep the swing in things. Doggone good. 'DJ Jeff et Steff' are
credited as being Fresh Lab, with Chris in the producer's chair, and an upcoming
album entitled "La Yellow 357" is promised.
Clean Up sent a promo for a new record by a group named Livonia. The four cuts
are all mixes of the tune "Fly". It is a nice song, the vocals by Joanna Law are
nice enough, but this may be the weakest Clean Up release yet. It's still good-
but it certainly doesn't scream at you like other Clean Up records. The song is
very slow (75 BPM or thereabouts) but not abstract enough to appeal to downtempo
DJs (save the 'dubmungus' mix). And the jungle 'airborn' mix is a not too
terribly good stab at jungle, save for some nice dubby delay effects in the
middle. Not an awful record, but certainly not up to Clean Up's amazing
standards. Maybe next time.
PEACE, all...
Michael
EIGHTH DIMENSION RECORDS / SOUL POWER MAGAZINE