Señor Coconut
“Fiesta Songs”
(Multicolor/Naïve)
Under self-imposed exile in Santiago since 1996, DJ and producer Uwe Schmidt left behind an elephantine back-catalog of albums and pseudonyms after fleeing his native Germany. A great deal of his monikers failed to turn out anything more than a flash-in-the-pan of the latest electronic fad. That’s why these days he’s better known as the farcical Señor Coconut. With 2000’s “El Baile Alemán,” he pulled off a double-edged stab at irony with a whole LP’s worth of Kraftwerk covers. The irony wasn’t that the songs were reworked in Latin-style salsa and merengue rhythms — the very opposite to the Teutonic, man-machine made originals, famous for their lack of human emotion — but that the record was Schimdt’s biggest success to date, proving a particularly colossal hit in the US. Once again transcending musical genres, “Fiesta Songs” throws Elton John, Sadé, The Doors, Deep Purple, Michael Jackson and even French synth-guru Jean-Michel Jarre into the Chilean melting pot. Mambo and cha cha cha versions of “Blue Eyes,” “Smooth Operator,” “Riders on the Storm” and “Beat It” consent to a refreshing and amusingly wry 45 minutes of entertainment.
Blur
“Think Tank”
(EMI/Parlophone)
Blur have always aspired to be something different to what they are — a pop group. Having lost their innocence in the late-’90s, hits like “There’s No Other Way” and “Parklife” made way for more “alternative” compositions like “Song 2.” On this, their first LP without guitarist Graham Coxon, their aspirations are confounded. With production credits shared with Ben Hillier (140dB), Norman Cook (aka Fatboy Slim) and William Orbit (Madonna), Blur have probably gone to great lengths — in terms of both time and money — to achieve the trashy, amateurish sound that is administered on the majority of their songs. “Crazy Beat” proves guilty of this in the first degree. Fortunately, there’s an inventive use of programming on a few of the jointly-produced tracks that at least give a momentary illusion of depth to the shallow and transparent songwriting. It’s what playing around and taking risks should sound like — only that when it goes wrong, it’s labeled “experimental.” Okay, Albarn’s voice is supposed to be out of key and the Velvet-style guitars are meant to be out of tune. But trying to replace catchy pop riffs with empty sonic doodlings will never lead to the kind of credibility Blur are (still) in search of. Out now
Tricky
“Vulnerable”
(Anti-/Pias)
From dark, sulphuric trip hop to bright, hip pop, via moody, transcendental rock. From Bristol to Los Angeles, via New York... Tricky has lived everything and everywhere. That’s maybe why his music lost its conviction and direction. After the excesses of “Juxtaposed,” the manic hip hop collaboration with Cypress Hill’s Muggs, and his last long-player “Blowback” (with every imaginable artist from the Chilli Peppers to Alanis Morrisette), “Vulnerable” is a more mature recording deployed with wisdom, virtue and a lot of hindsight. In Constanza Francavilla — an Italian singer who slipped her demo to Tricky’s drummer at a concert in Rome — the ex-Massive Attack wordsmith has found a muse with the same inspiring effect as Martina Toppley Bird had on “Maxinquaye.” Dub and hip hop are the principal components of “Hollow,” “Stay” and most of the other dozen tracks, rendered more accessible and lighter than any of his other work to date. Out now
Music + Fashion = Paris
“La musique” and “la mode” have always shared more in common than Elton John’s wardrobe circa 1977 and a raised hem line at a Blondie concert. Nowadays, designers hire DJs and sometimes whole bands to perform live at their catwalk shows. The music gives an identity to the brand. And the brand is what sells clothes in the high street. “Fashion Week” is “the official soundtrack” to the rag trade’s equivalent of the Grammy’s — celebrating the New York, London, Milan and Paris shows for Spring/Summer 2003. Fendi, Kenzo, Dolce & Gabbana, Dries van Noten and Emanuel Ungaro are some of the labels represented on this electro-tinged double album, marked by tracks from fashion darlings Polyester, Add N To (X), Queen of Japan and Zongamin. Hanayo cover “Joe le Taxi” and Saint Etienne rework the Gainsbourgian “La Poupée Qui Fait Non,” which both lend a bit of Parisian flair. “Fashion TV” has chosen a less succinct approach to its compiling technique. They’ve entrusted UK “super-DJ” Pete Tong to edit another double CD, which struggles to represent even the least fashion-conscious person’s idea of what happens on a catwalk. Tong, however, redeems himself on CD2 with cuts from Lemon Jelly and Ulrich Schnauss, but this is more fashion victim than fashion statement.
“Fashion Week” (George V/Wagram) and “Fashion TV” (Pschent/Wagram) both out now
