Review by Tom Remp
Supercity, the Dutch/South American jazz-Latin fusion band who’s previous album Atico was one of Student At Large’s biggest hits last year return with their latest release, Souvenir. A daring mix of new styles and a return to old influences make the fifteen-track album a worthy successor to Supercity and hints of exiting things to come.
The album starts with the familiar smoky vocals of Bless You but with a new found vigor spurred on by a great mix of percussion and bass guitar. From there it slows to the contemplative, instrumental Darkness with its strong middle-eastern influencesand takes right off again with Drummer. This last is a great mix of funk-ish melody, mellowed lyrics and seemingly Hendrix-inspired backing guitar (with some great jazz brass thrown neatly in) that blends together into an overtly stylish mix.)
Continuing in Spanish with the familiar sounding Faro the band prove as they did throughout Atico that they’re vocally as well as musically bilingual. The short, quick Killers follows right after, (one of the few complaints I had was that I wish this had been twice as long), then the lovely, calming La Resonance which introduces some great lilting French influences and manages to be one of the albums strongest tracks. Another Spanish track, the slow and brooding M'Hija leads to the unsettling, ghostly refrains of Mezrab then the cheerfully lazy Mikkisecondi, a great mix of lullaby and latin medley.
The album gets another of Supercity’s trademark changes in tempo and mood with Nightmare, a bizarrely carnival-ish mix of the usual smoky lyrics mixed with superb drum and guitar. The experimental-sounding Nothing follows with chilled-out candor, before another, old-fashoned sounding Spanish number Paredes which is particularly notable for its great guitar solo.
The final three tracks manage to neatly sum up the entire album. The energetically Latin Presidente with its old-school guitar and Manu Chao’ish lyrics is followed by the weird, trippy clash of shivering, creaking noise that is Sonney Hunting Tiger and the album is closed by the jazzy, didgeridoo and brass laced 6/8 which seamlessly blends old lyrical prowess with a new-found musical vigor. All in all, a great if slightly experimental companion to Atico.
The album starts with the familiar smoky vocals of Bless You but with a new found vigor spurred on by a great mix of percussion and bass guitar. From there it slows to the contemplative, instrumental Darkness with its strong middle-eastern influencesand takes right off again with Drummer. This last is a great mix of funk-ish melody, mellowed lyrics and seemingly Hendrix-inspired backing guitar (with some great jazz brass thrown neatly in) that blends together into an overtly stylish mix.)
Continuing in Spanish with the familiar sounding Faro the band prove as they did throughout Atico that they’re vocally as well as musically bilingual. The short, quick Killers follows right after, (one of the few complaints I had was that I wish this had been twice as long), then the lovely, calming La Resonance which introduces some great lilting French influences and manages to be one of the albums strongest tracks. Another Spanish track, the slow and brooding M'Hija leads to the unsettling, ghostly refrains of Mezrab then the cheerfully lazy Mikkisecondi, a great mix of lullaby and latin medley.
The album gets another of Supercity’s trademark changes in tempo and mood with Nightmare, a bizarrely carnival-ish mix of the usual smoky lyrics mixed with superb drum and guitar. The experimental-sounding Nothing follows with chilled-out candor, before another, old-fashoned sounding Spanish number Paredes which is particularly notable for its great guitar solo.
The final three tracks manage to neatly sum up the entire album. The energetically Latin Presidente with its old-school guitar and Manu Chao’ish lyrics is followed by the weird, trippy clash of shivering, creaking noise that is Sonney Hunting Tiger and the album is closed by the jazzy, didgeridoo and brass laced 6/8 which seamlessly blends old lyrical prowess with a new-found musical vigor. All in all, a great if slightly experimental companion to Atico.
