|
(Clicka qua per la versione Italiana)
Deee-Lite was a surreal trio of New York musicians, comprising
Dmitri Brill (originally from Russia), Towa Tei (originally from Korea via
Japan)
and chanteuse and aspiring disco diva Kier Kirby.
Deee-Lite erupted on the New York club scene with the single
Groove Is In The Heart.
The joyful romp that was their debut album,
World Clique (Elektra, 1990), redefined techno music as
futuristic kitsch, a genre for the masses with a sense of humour.
The archetype for all the other tracks is the tribal syncopated
feel-good Afro-funk
music, enhanced with jazz piano, of Good Beat.
Power of Love adds soul crooning,
Try Me On adds a horn section and organ glissandoes.
That pattern repeats itself over and over again, peaking with the infectious
refrain and piano progression of World Clique.
What really sets this dance music apart is the jazzy undercurrents, that
can be quite intriguing.
Infinity Within (Elektra, 1992), with
Rubber Love, and
Dewdrops In The Garden (Elektra, 1994), with the
fibrillating jump blues of Party Happening People,
were vastly inferior albums.
The exuberance had turned into hysterical frenzy, the spontaneous celebration
into conscious imitation of contemporary fads.
In the meantime, Towa Tei had already launched his solo career with
Future Listening (Elektra, 1995). By relying more heavily on samples
(and guest vocalists)
and expanding his vision towards jazz and world-music, Tei came up with an
intriguing take on lounge music.
The instrumental manifesto, I Want To Relax, is a fanfare of
fragmented charleston. That sets the tone for a parade of funny masquerades
that (as far as fun goes) culminate with
Son Of Bambi, an exuberant fusion of Indian and western dance music.
Other entertaining sketches include
Technova, that simulates the easy-listening soundtracks of the 1960s and
injects a touch of Brazilian pop and a romantic saxophone,
and Luv Connection, a more serious tribute to disco-funk, while
Brazilian pop gets explicitly deconstructed in the effervescent
Batucada.
The feeling is joyous, but only on the surface: a sudden pause, a distortion,
a solo are enough to cast a sinister shadow on the game.
To crown the disc, the 12-minute Dubnova is a majestic collage of
Sixties' "du-be-du" vocals, dance beats, blues/jazz jamming, tribal drums,
electronic music, etc, that dissolves in a mythical place,
somewhere between a faraway nebula and a zen garden.
With Sound Museum (Japan, 1996 - Elektra, 1997), instead, Tei gave
a pretentious, polyglot experiment on
his favorite genres (rhythm and blues, bossanova, hip hop, samba,
drum'n'bass and jazz)
that worked only with the exotic electronic soul of
Everything We Do Is Music.
Despite the quantity and quality of collaborators,
and despite Tei's technical skills,
Last Century Modern (Elektra, 1999) is short on inspiration.
The usual parade of styles,
and the impeccable collage art rarely churn out
more than cold essays on dance production techniques
(Congratulations, Funkin' For Jamaica) and
on pop production techniques (Angel, Butterfly).
The futuristic, accordion-driven lounge music of Last Century Modern is
cute, but then, again, we have heard it before on Tei's albums.
|
