Published on Jul 9, 2004
As much as we try here at The Daily Vault, it is simply
impossible for a single reviewer to be completely schooled in every
single form of music. You want to talk about world music? That’s
Duke’s department. Modern-day pop? We’d probably funnel that over
to AlwaysJB.
So, I have to admit that I am not the world-renowned expert on
“trance” music, never having been hip enough to go to the clubs in
my younger days. (Well, that, plus I wasn’t interested.) But, to
quote C. Montgomery Burns, “I know what I hate… and I don’t
hate this.”
The “this” in question is
Release 1.0 from Italy’s Doctor Jazz’s Universal Remedy. You
don’t have to be completely immersed in the world of trance to
appreciate the quality of music this quartet creates. For a disc
that clocks in at around 68 minutes, the music is solid enough to
make the time feel like only a minute has passed.
The group — vocalist Miss Loulou (memories of Deee-Lite,
anyone?), keyboardist Dr. Marcus, sampler Dr. Delavie and
saxophonist Dr. Blade (Omigod! Live instrumentation!) — knows how
to lay down a solid beat, and make things interesting, no matter
what the tempo of the song is. Granted, after hearing the leadoff
track “Milt Shake,” I expected that this disc would feature
samplings of jazz musicians put to danceable beats. (Actually,
that’s not a bad idea for a future album, even if Us3 did that many
years ago.)
In reality, the absence of pure jazz from the remaining tracks
turns out to serve the group well. Tracks like “Groovy Night” (all
three versions), “Thank You Very Much” and “Seven Reasons Why” all
demonstrate a mastery of the genre. At no time does any one portion
of the band feel like they’re about to step too far into the
forefront; instead, each member’s contributions balance with the
others well. That’s a pretty tough skill to learn, much less
master, but Doctor Jazz’s Universal Remedy seems to have it down
well.
Is
Release 1.0 a disc which will light the musical world on
fire? I don’t believe so. But it is a very entertaining way to
spend an hour or so, kicking back with a cosmopolitan and
forgetting about all the troubles of life.