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Gran Riserva by Dzihan + Kamien

Tracks:

  1. Stiff Jazz
  2. Basmati
  3. Ford Transit
  4. Sliding
  5. Drophere
  6. Where's Johny Sabatino
  7. Deep Kitsch
  8. Airport
  9. Dundadeova
  10. Thrill
  11. Gutenmorgenduft

Review:

Jazz infused trip hop infused Asian massive infused Arabic strings infused plain weirdness (come on! they scratch up a freakin' string ensemble - sounds just awesome though!). As a whole the album teeters at the outskirts of any genre. Sure it's jazzy, it's trippy, it's funky but it's definitely not just Jazz or Trip hop or Funk. It's something that provides all those genres but never allows you to accurately guess what’s coming up next. (Except of course if you listen to it a hundred times over like I did.)

D&K present you with an album that questions the generic notion of any such thing as generic. Tradition is there but conventions have been thrown out the window! Sure each song separately could belong in one genre but who listens to just one track in an album? Maybe if you are one to pay for RIAA's baby Eminem's CD. But, if you are on this site, reading this review at this moment in controversial, webcasting, time then you care about music a bit more than simply finding out what's in E's closet! So, don't go into this album with any expectations. You WILL be severely disappointed.

This isn't Asian Massive or Asian Underground per se - sure it has South Asian (tablas), Arabic (drums, strings) elements added but when the music begins the ability to tell which genre the melodious woman's voice, the trumpets, the guitar riffs belong in, quickly disappears. You are going to be left thinking "its going to be hard having one memorable track on this album- 'cause all of them are so great."

Personal Pick: Track 5 - Drophere.

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