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Rating: Some time ago, while goofing around on the pages of a music magazine of not great quality, which I won't name, I stumbled upon someone who compared the odd name Pepe Deluxe, belonging to a Finnish group, to Frank Zappa with great conviction and enthusiasm. Instantly, I thought of the classic music critic who gets easily excited, all caught up in finding echoes of a bygone past in modern pop practices.
Curious, however, I went to the website of these Pepe Deluxe and saw that they were two Finnish DJs (James Spectrum and JA-Jazz, names perilously similar to our J-AX and DJ JAD..) who proclaimed themselves the coolest sound manipulators around. I also discovered that some time ago they had produced a piece with a Nina Simone sample that even ended up in a Levi's commercial, of which I had no memory. Perhaps that website had a certain charm, or perhaps that parallel with Frank Zappa was haunting me, here I am today with this "BEATitude" in my hands.
"Delirious they are," I think as I browse through the booklet, illustrations of a sort of madman's museum where photos taken in the recording studio are paintings hung among Magritte-like characters, deserts, Marshall amplifiers, and notes about the discovery of a second moon sighted in the mid-1800s. Once the CD is inserted into the appropriate player, I instantly hear a speaker from beyond the grave introducing me to "Just let go", a rather obsessive and rhythmic tune, garnished with a little voice that occasionally resurfaces from the DJ's decks. "A rather interlocutory piece," I think, just in time to be swept away by "Salami Fever," the first stroke of genius from the duo that assembles here furious drum bursts and a singing robot (not to be missed is the video in which two shady figures, an anorexic and a Chuck Norris look-alike, engage in a greasy battle based on the use of sausages of various stature). But my exhilaration soon dissipates and is quickly replaced by a certain sense of bewilderment as I try to make sense of the various ravings organized by these blessed lunatics.
Very vintage ravings like "Ask for a kiss" and "Girl," where samples from two old songs are reworked in their own way, in the first case with relaxed acoustic guitars that weave chill-out atmospheres and in the second with a nice powerful groove. Very indie ravings with "Real simple" that seems like Flaming Lips. And ravings that can't really be defined like "little miss cypher" where trip-hop rhythms are introduced by the keys of a phone and dismissed by the triumphant entrance of imposing strings or "A moment in black & white" in which two play with a schizophrenic piano as if they wanted to write the soundtrack of a film that is neither here nor there. When I get to "First goodbye," somewhere between Air and the soundtrack of a cheesy movie with Lino Banfi and Edwige Fenech, I think it's finally over. Instead, there comes a barrage of ghost tracks, the first Arabic, the second very chicana (the chorus goes "Vamos Muchachos..") and the third experimental, sung by a heavily distorted voice accompanying hiccuping bass and drums and various sounds that in turn intrude and take over. It all ends with the speaker coming from the beyond once again.
Crazy album for crazy people. But Frank Zappa was a whole different kind of madness.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Salami Fever (03:31)
I'm edgy like razor
I hit you like a lazer
Impressing on some strangers
when I messed up two from Texas Rangers
Busting through your back door
chopping up your hardwood floor
Eager like a beaver
I'm giving you salami fever
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