All Systems Are Go Go
Eighteenth Street Lounge has positioned itself as the ultimate chill-out label, purveying a cosmopolitan blend of vocal and instrumental styles with a strong Brazilian influence over jazzy, laid-back grooves. However, even the most dedicated lounge hipster likes to pick up the pace once in a while, andAll Systems Are Go Gofills that need handily. Alex Gimeno (a.k.a. Ursula 1000) has previously releasedThe Now Sound of Ursula 1000, which featured his own music; this CD is a continuous DJ mix of international tracks of what the Germans call "Easylistening." The record kicks off with a blare of horns from Japan's ECD, remixed byPizzicato Five's Yasuharu Konishi. The music is sounds like the movie scores of '60s and '70s composerPeter Thomasbolstered by the late '90s big-beat drum tracks that persist throughout the CD. Berlin's Bungalow Records is represented with a Southern-fried organ-groove track from Le Hammond Inferno, and England's Skeewiff follow with a kitschy lounge-flavored track that's characteristic of the Brighton sound. Other ESL friends such as Nicola Conte put in appearances, and a track from England's Jadell is spun around the guitar riff from Can's "I Want More" (fresh from its appearance on the Workshop track of theDeutscher Funkcompilation). While the beat is a bit too unvarying throughout, there are some welcome breaks from the horn-heavy lounge-exotica musical emphasis; the Hardwire and Trio Electro tracks include some hip-hop samples, and Los Chicharrons and El Loco Gringo's appealingly ersatz Latin styles hold up the latter half of the mix.--Bob Bannister