Brazzaville: Welcome To...Brazzaville
Brazzaville
Welcome to…Brazzaville
Web of Mimicry Recordings
Rating: 78 out of 100
Welcome to Brazzaville is a compilation release of selected tracks from Brazzaville’s three prior albums Brazzaville 2002, Somnambulista, and Rouge on Pockmarked Cheeks, plus two previously unreleased tracks. Mimicry Records released the album as a way to introduce the band to new listeners. The band’s sound features bossa-nova grooves, dirty rock, laid-back club jazz, and even some elevator music in the style of “The Girl from Ipanema”. Think of Ed Harcourt fronting Los Lobos in an opium den with Wes Cunningham’s stylings.
David Brown seems to be very aware of his influences and has blended them together for an eclectic world sound diverse it its elements, but balanced. The instruments are well-placed in the arrangements. It seems like a live show would be quite a task considering all of the instruments that would need to be present to try and duplicate the studio versions of the songs.
“Christmas in E.C.” features kaleidoscope keys and acoustic guitar arpeggios floating over a bossa-nova groove which rides on a snare back-beat. A horn section fills out the sound and even features a trombone solo which melts into the sound. “Motel Room” sounds like a guitar arrangement that Lindsey Buckingham would have written with Ed Harcourt singing along to staccato bursts of organ and teases of sassy violin. “Queenie”, with its lush synths, gliding guitar arpeggios, Santana-type lead guitar, and haunting background vocals, should be playing on the radio with the likes of Beck’s Sea Change. “Sewers of Bangkok” features dirty distorted power chords, searing synth sounds reminiscent of Pink Floyd’s “Welcome to the Machine”, and lyrics that are spoken sometimes as a whisper at times rather than sung.
All fifteen of the tracks fit into one of the categories listed above, but the categories themselves get a bit repetitious by the end of the album. Brown’s lyrics mostly stay depressive and dirty throughout, covering themes of love, drugs, and loss from different corners of the world. His voice is on the verge of mumbling on some tracks and understanding the lyrics gets even more confusing in some places considering that Brown is multilingual without warning on some of the songs. This album would be a good pick for anyone, especially those liking a mix of different world influences and good old rock and roll.
Ryan T. White
For more information:
http://www.webofmimicry.com/
http://www.brazzaville-band.com/
Welcome to…Brazzaville
Web of Mimicry Recordings
Rating: 78 out of 100
Welcome to Brazzaville is a compilation release of selected tracks from Brazzaville’s three prior albums Brazzaville 2002, Somnambulista, and Rouge on Pockmarked Cheeks, plus two previously unreleased tracks. Mimicry Records released the album as a way to introduce the band to new listeners. The band’s sound features bossa-nova grooves, dirty rock, laid-back club jazz, and even some elevator music in the style of “The Girl from Ipanema”. Think of Ed Harcourt fronting Los Lobos in an opium den with Wes Cunningham’s stylings.
David Brown seems to be very aware of his influences and has blended them together for an eclectic world sound diverse it its elements, but balanced. The instruments are well-placed in the arrangements. It seems like a live show would be quite a task considering all of the instruments that would need to be present to try and duplicate the studio versions of the songs.
“Christmas in E.C.” features kaleidoscope keys and acoustic guitar arpeggios floating over a bossa-nova groove which rides on a snare back-beat. A horn section fills out the sound and even features a trombone solo which melts into the sound. “Motel Room” sounds like a guitar arrangement that Lindsey Buckingham would have written with Ed Harcourt singing along to staccato bursts of organ and teases of sassy violin. “Queenie”, with its lush synths, gliding guitar arpeggios, Santana-type lead guitar, and haunting background vocals, should be playing on the radio with the likes of Beck’s Sea Change. “Sewers of Bangkok” features dirty distorted power chords, searing synth sounds reminiscent of Pink Floyd’s “Welcome to the Machine”, and lyrics that are spoken sometimes as a whisper at times rather than sung.
All fifteen of the tracks fit into one of the categories listed above, but the categories themselves get a bit repetitious by the end of the album. Brown’s lyrics mostly stay depressive and dirty throughout, covering themes of love, drugs, and loss from different corners of the world. His voice is on the verge of mumbling on some tracks and understanding the lyrics gets even more confusing in some places considering that Brown is multilingual without warning on some of the songs. This album would be a good pick for anyone, especially those liking a mix of different world influences and good old rock and roll.
Ryan T. White
For more information:
http://www.webofmimicry.com/
http://www.brazzaville-band.com/
posted by Ryan @ 10:08 PM
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