De Phazz
Days Of Twang

Not Just Krautrock

Released a few weeks ago by the group's new label, Phazz-A-Delic, this sixth work by De Phazz, the "open-band-concept", as they love to call themselves, has already captivated fans who have followed them since their first album "Detunized Gravity" in 1997.

Every new work by this German concept band from Heidelberg represents a bet on the rate of novelty, on musical cues not yet revealed, which they will be able to develop in the recording studio. Those who listened to them in their debut work might have thought of yet another group that, skillfully using electronics, had managed to produce intriguing and attractive downtempo, but in doing so also stitching themselves a label that would invariably identify them for what they were, which was nothing more than a new name that would swell the already large ranks of krautrock exponents with chillout and lounge undertones. Instead, the skillful electronic alchemist and captain of the band, Pit Baumgartner, has shown album after album that even within the relatively narrow maneuvering spaces offered by the styles of lounge music, it was possible to introduce an innumerable series of variations and incursions into musical terrains unexplored by various DJs and sound engineers predisposed to recording self-produced sampled tracks.

Album after album, De Phazz has accustomed us to certain constants, which are the extreme attention to the technique of musical composition, the harmonic syntax dominated by the logic of formal balance and symmetry: many compositions are clearly built in modules, as if the sound took on a geometric structure, lines, and planes. And that there exists this correspondence between space, physical environment, and the sound that occupies it in the musical genre in question is also testified by another very interesting proponent of the downtempo genre, the Swiss Robert Jan Meyer, promoter of the minus8 project, who, when not at the McIntosh assembling his musical compositions, takes care of his other profession, which is that of an architect. Returning to Dephazz, the real constant in this group's music is the exhaustive search for forms of expression if not new - that is, there is in these tracks a continuous play of citations of musical genres belonging to tradition - but certainly always mutable and different from one another.

It is pleasant to think of the De Phazz project as a prosperous journey, during which those who embark upon it collect an infinite series of sensations, impressions, images, which they then set to music and deliver to their audience. Each new album offers the audience, still not very numerous but increasingly loyal, delightful surprises. The most surprising, for its structure supported by a formidable combination of rhythm and melody, is "Daily Lama" (2002).

If the bet with each new work by De Phazz is: will they succeed this time as well in not repeating themselves? In expressing something new? In surprising us with unheard sounds, with stylistic solutions that pique curiosity, make one listen attentively? Well, I would say yes, this time too the bet is won. Pit Baumgartner produces and signs fourteen of the sixteen tracks on this album, some, indeed, as a co-author. And as always he leads and directs his often very talented group of musicians, who change with each new album, except for some who have been part of the Dephazz project since their debut LP, like Karl Frierson and Barbara Lahr, both lead vocals. Baumgartner dispels any suspicion, if there even was such a need, that this musical genre could end up being nothing more than a mere formal exercise, typical background accompaniment, along with the clinking of ice-cold champagne glasses, for vacuous conversations at refined but formal cocktail parties, or the most suitable music to be discreetly played from the stereo system of any venue that wants to display a certain air of sophistication. With "Days Of Twang" we definitively enter the realm of certainly high-quality downtempo, but where the content is no less important than the form.

After "Twang", a brief intro lasting just a few seconds, the rhythm immediately unleashes itself in track no. 2, "Boogie Philosophy", a track with an irresistible funky groove that will make you want to get caught up in the movement of this music, especially if you let the CD slide into a suitably high-quality hi-fi and know how to adjust the bass properly. From here on, the well-known Dephazzian eclecticism embarks on a delightful 44-minute journey to explore, in touching and always very pleasant fugues, the most varied rhythms, the most unexpected blendings of styles, genres, and subgenres: from bossa nova to trip-hop, from acid jazz to nu jazz, from lounge to blues, from drum&bass to plunges back in time into that nobly pedigreed krautrock from which the entire history of this German ensemble has taken its cue.

The care put into the arrangements is total, so much so that even the taste for cunningly dirty sounds, that simulation of electromechanical glitches, like the crackling of a needle skipping on the final groove of vinyl, does nothing but emphasize, by contrast, the context of absolute formal cleanliness underlying the whole work. And we must not forget that, contrary to what is usually the case for this genre of music, here it is not just a question of deft work with samplers and synthesizers. Certainly, this album also includes samplers and synthesizers. But, and we would say especially, here you find live musicians. And of very high caliber. The refined trumpet of Thomas Siffling in "Nonsensical Thing" and "Dancing With My Hands", for example. Or certain elegant embroideries like the brief accordion touches of Tobias Escher in "It Will Turn Out Right". "Hell Alright" is the most effervescent track on the album: the voices of Pat Appleton and Mr. U.N. Own Jr. alternate in a bossa nova with a not too hidden eye on the market, considering that this track was chosen as the album opener and the corresponding video is showcased on Dephazz's official website.

"Shadow Of A Lie" recalls bebop atmospheres, but... beware!, sudden change of direction in the next track, "Whats The Use Of": salsa!, also here, however, with the addition of a disorienting and playful touch: the banjo of Adax Dörsam, which decisively veers the piece toward country-blues colorings. A treat for the auditory system! The creative enthusiasm that Dephazz manages to infuse in this new work is perhaps the real force that gives life to rhythms and styles always different, sometimes very distant from each other: even astonishing is the brutal leap from the Zulu-rap of "Le Petit Bastard", a direct nod to the times of osmotic contaminations between Afrika Bambaataa and UB40, and "It Will Turn Out Right" where the atmosphere between blues and soft jazz and Moon Girl's soft and sensual voice seem to playfully mimic Sade Adu's "Smooth Operator". Our favorite tracks: "My Society": vocals from co-author of the track Pat Appleton within that effective marriage of rhythm and melody already mentioned, and "Dancing With My Hands", which starts with some vocalizations by Barbara Lahr, almost like "warming up" the vocal cords, only to develop into a rich, fascinating melody.

This "Days Of Twang" is hence a truly successful album. With each new listening, you will discover sensations not experienced in the previous listening: a spark in the arrangements hidden behind the main sounds, and some felicitous spots in the lyrics will capture your attention when one might say that in this music genre everything is important except for the lyrical words having, other than a purely accessory and decorative function, even the slightest coherent meaning. A musical gem that you will want to listen to often and which I suggest you do not miss in your CD collection.

De Phazz, "Days Of Twang", Phazz-A-Delic, 2007