Album Review: V/A - A Slice Of Paradise (Fusinova)

Writer: Oliver Scott

Sadly perhaps, in light of these crazy frogs, the days of the novelty summer single (think Sabrina's Boys, Boys, Boys if you can stand to) appear to be behind us. And the fact that the soundtrack to a million summer holidays has taken a turn for the better recently is undoubtedly down to the whole Ibiza/Café del Mar thing; if you're stuck on some tedious Greek island with your mum and dad, put Café del Mar Volume 473 on your iPod and you can pretend you're dancing with some beautiful tanned folk in a luxurious bar, maybe even with a friend of a friend of a friend of Jade Jagger.

Even if the closest you've come to Ibiza is watching Uncovered, you'll know what this genre's component parts are: strummed acoustic guitar for that Flamenco feel, some ambient noises - especially seagulls or rainfall, gently wafting synths, a sprinkling of polite percussion, a gentle housey stomp, undemanding vocals often done in an EFL (English as a Foreign Language) style. Thinking about it, there's nothing wrong with that. Anyway, the latest entry into this market, A Slice of Paradise, also focuses on a specific place, consisting as it does of five mixed CDs, each compiled by a separate DJ who has played a residency at the Xiringuito bar in Alicante, Spain.

As you'd imagine, there's a photo of Xiringutio on the cover of this lovingly packaged - with recycled paper no less - album, and oh my, it looks lovely. But what could you expect to hear there? On this showing, a fairly pleasant musical menu for your feet to tap to as you eat your tapas. Of the five DJs, Biggabush is first up, dropping a fairly relaxing selection of what I'm decided is a new style of music - 'holiday dub'. Not my bag in the slightest, but I'm sure Scandinavian tourists would like it, what with it's crashing wave effects and everything.

Moving on, Nick Matthews of Best Kept Secret adorns the second CD, and while his mix is rather London mid-2004: a bit of broken beat, a couple of Yam Who? remixes, Amp Fiddler, something on Sona, it's all good stuff, and all flows nicely. If you're a fan of that whole Jazztronik Japanese jazz thing, then Gav Smith's mix will be right up your street - it's a pretty tidy distillation of that sound. You might well know the Spiritual South remix of Paul Murphy's Jazz Room, and OK, it sounds like it was knocked off in half an hour, but it's all the better for it. From Philadelphia, PA, Vikter Duplaix finishes the CD off in the company of Jafrosax, crooning In the Morning - surely this became an anthem for Xiringutio's most fervent lotharios.

One Enrique Domenech gets the orange CD (I should have said, all the CDs are fruit themed with the kiwi fruit one looking particularly delicious) and it's a strange mix, though strange in a good way. Plus, it gets bonus points for track number eight being by the best named group ever - Alcohol Jazz. There's a tune with Airto Moreira and Flora Purim on vocals too - Cabo Verde Strut by Intuit. I like that one. Oh, and UK rapper Yungun aka Essa guest appears on one track with Les Valeurs, It Don't Matter, and he gets the thumbs up from me for using the word "plimsolls". There should be more songs containing the word "plimsolls".

Up last, and decorated with the aforementioned kiwi fruit, is Ben Mono's CD. I'll confess, I'd not heard of Mr Mono before, though he is clearly affiliated with German label Compost. True to form, he turns in a precise and well thought out mix, the kind of thing you'd expect from one of the Jazzanova guys. That sounds like a back handed compliment, but it is actually very good, and when he plays the Afronaught remix of Juice by Season, I considered looking up flights to Alicante right there and then.

Anyway, you can't be too judgemental on these sort of compilations as they're designed as background music, a soundtrack to your socialising, with nothing too outré to disrupt the mood. That said, with a couple of exceptions, all the artists here are pretty much contemporary and I don't think this compilation necessarily benefits from this - however wide-ranging and diverse the selections are. Like local wine or a holiday romance, this stuff doesn't always travel well, but I can't deny that A Slice of Paradise could well hit the spot with you this summer even if you've never set off to sunny Spain... "Y Viva Espana!"

RELATED LINKS:



Buy A Slice Of Paradise at Amazon UK (CD)




PUBLISHED: 11 September 2005

RELEASE DATE: 19 September 2005 (UK) .

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